


Dying Star

by spidermilk



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Apocalypse, Blood and Gore, Connie is a Badass, Dark Spinel, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, F/F, Graphic Description, Heavy Angst, Like Seriously She’s Lost It, Psychological Trauma, Revenge Sex, Uh oh it’s the Cluster
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2020-10-18 20:09:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20644961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spidermilk/pseuds/spidermilk
Summary: When White Diamond removes Steven’s gem, things don’t exactly go as kid-friendly as before.





	1. Family Reunion

“_It’s time to come out, Pink_.” 

Steven Universe was powerless in the terrifying grasp of White Diamond, and could only stare in sheer terror as the massive gem fixed her clawlike nails around his gemstone... 

...And _pulled_. 

At first, Steven, eyes scrunched shut, didn’t feel anything at all— he was so tensed up and cold in the lifeless room that he’d grown numb on the outside. 

But then he opened his eyes and let out a breath. His gem, unmistakably diamond-shaped, was no longer embedded in his stomach, where it had been all of his life. 

It glimmered brilliantly in the talons of White Diamond, but as Steven watched, frozen, he noticed the dark red coating the tip of his displaced gem and made the mistake of glancing down. 

Steven’s stomach was coated in blood, and he felt his heart drop into it as he realized that it was oozing out fast— too fast. He felt light-headed. 

“Tsk, tsk. What a mess...”, came the voice of White Diamond, and Steven could also faintly hear Connie screaming somewhere far below him. He needed to heal himself— but he couldn’t now, with his gem gone. 

He... he was going to die, wasn’t he? 

Steven could barely keep his eyes open as White placed him on the ground, letting his gem ascend on its own into the air, glowing and sparkling. 

What a strangely beautiful thing to see before I die, thought Steven. I wonder what it’s going to do on its own. 

The aura around the gem glowed brighter, and took form— first was the silhouette of a tall gem, with fluffy hair and a formal-looking outfit, then it was the all-too familiar shape of Rose Quartz, and then it was him, small and soft, a neon sort of pink. Steven could almost ignore the taste of blood in his mouth at the relief that White Diamond had been wrong about him. 

But then, the form glitched, and reversed its order: Steven’s grew into Rose’s again, who, in turn, grew ever-taller... 

The gem that alighted herself on the floor of White’s ship was none other than Pink Diamond. 

The entire room seemed to be in a shocked silence, except for the hum of the ship and Steven’s increasingly louder coughing and spluttering. 

He struggled to breathe, trying in vain to block the heavy bleeding from the hole in his stomach, and began to choke up with tears as well. This was his _mother_. 

His mother, who he’d never known, never _could_ have known— who had had such a complicated and confusing past. His mother, Rose Quartz, who had been a figure of stability and benevolence, but had harbored dark secrets. His mother, Pink Diamond, who was gem royalty and the leader of the gem rebellion. 

The gem who was now standing mere meters away from him. 

“What— what’s going on?”, came her voice, meek from disuse but ringing out perfectly clearly. 

White Diamond’s empty stare didn’t falter. “I’ve put at end to this ridiculous game of yours, is what’s happened, Pink. And now you must resume your duties here, or I shall be forced to—“

“Mom?” , coughed Steven. 

He needed to see her. Even if it was just once. 

Pink—Rose— his mother turned around, and her eyes were pale, piercing, curious. Full of life. A hand flew to her mouth in shock and she ran over to her dying son, kneeling beside him.

Her voice was kind and fraught with sadness. “Steven? Oh, Steven... this wasn’t meant to happen. This is all wrong...” 

She whipped around to face White Diamond. “_What have you done to him_?!” 

White grimaced, clearly having no sympathy for Pink or her bloodied human son. 

“Starlight, his life was nowhere near as valuable as yours is. Now step back. You’re getting that red organic goop all over yourself _and_ my floor.” 

Pink didn’t step back. She in leaned close to Steven to whisper urgently into his ear. 

“Steven, you must try to fuse with me— perhaps it’ll save you.” She sounded desperate. 

He shook his head. “Can’t.” Talking was becoming all but impossible. “I’m just a human now—“, he broke off in a fit of coughing, practically hacking his lungs up. Pink’s eyes were wide with fear. 

“Pink Diamond!”, barked White. “I said that’s enough!” 

Pink ignored her and leaned over Steven, forcing tears out of her eyes with all of her effort, and Steven felt a little hopeful for the first time.

Maybe he’d be okay... 

“No!”, screamed White, and something careened into Pink before the first tear could fall. It was Amethyst— still mindless and grey. The pair bowled over and Pink had to shove the smaller gem off of her to try and make it back to Steven, eyes narrowed in fierce determination. 

Steven’s vision was darkening already, however, and Pink had only just thrown off Amethyst after she’d pounced her again when Garnet slid to a halt in front of her, holding her back with the smaller gem’s help. 

“_Stop it_!, Pink wailed to White. “Let me save him!” 

“You’re only kidding yourself, Pink! He’ll die anyway without your gem, you know that.” 

Pink Diamond was in tears now, still fighting, but even as she did so, watching the now-lifeless Steven slump to the floor, she knew that the crushing reality of it was that it was hopeless. 

White Diamond allowed Garnet and Amethyst to release Pink, who ran right back, collapsing at Steven’s side and bursting into _real_ tears, shaking as she watched each sparkling drop fall onto his skin and do nothing at all. 

Steven was gone. 

Pink barely heard the choked sob from somewhere near her, only knowing that her son was gone and White had taken him from her. 

Although White Diamond had done this, however, Pink was angrier at herself. She wished she really had been shattered all those years ago. 

She wasn’t supposed to be here. 

_Steven_ was supposed to be here. 

White was sighing. “Since you obviously can’t be expected to run anything in your... state, I’ll simply have to keep you under watch until you can.” 

Pink didn’t answer.

Nothing mattered anymore, nothing.

“And while we’re at it, let’s get this organic life form out of my sight, mm?” , continued White. 

Pink looked up through tear-filled eyes to see a Pearl— _her_ Pearl— take what seemed to be a human child behind White’s place and out of sight, but couldn’t be bothered to go after them. What would the point of that be? __

_ __ _

She pulled Steven’s limp, blood-soaked form into her arms, not caring about how much she got on her, and cradled him there. 

_ __ _

Everything was lost. 

_ __ _

_ __ _

•••

_ __ _

_ __ _

Pink Diamond had taken to sleeping lately. 

_ __ _

It was a well-known fact that gems didn’t need to sleep, of course, but what else could she do locked alone in her room for days on end? 

_ __ _

At least White hadn’t put her in the tower again, as she had so many times before.

_ __ _

That... might have been worse. 

_ __ _

White Diamond had wanted Pink to learn from her mistakes and forget about her Earthly attachments, but how could she do that when her only son had died in her hands, bloodied and sobbing, so very recently? She couldn’t seem to stop her own tears, not when White had dragged her away, not when White had asked for Steven’s body to be taken away, and not when White had commanded her to stop crying. 

_ __ _

Truthfully, White Diamond had wanted to overpower her mind, but she’d known that with Yellow and Blue already indisposed for their prior actions, she needed at least one other Diamond to be fully present to help run Homeworld. 

_ __ _

The only reason White didn’t simply release her hold on Yellow and Blue was because she knew they’d come back and defy her again, and she couldn’t have that, no. 

_ __ _

So she’d dissipated their forms, and bubbled the defeated remainder of the Crystal Gems for later interrogation, if possible. 

_ __ _

Being Diamonds, they took far more time and energy to reform— especially because they’d never _been_ dissipated before, at least not to White’s knowledge. 

_ __ _

She couldn’t afford having Pink Diamond absent along with them —she’d be left with no one to help her with dealing with Earth— so her next best option was to try and make Pink see sense the hard way. 

_ __ _

Pink had no intention of complying, of course. She wouldn’t turn against the planet she’d fought so hard for, not even now, when Steven was gone. 

_ __ _

Pink still loved the Earth deeply; after all, wasn’t that where she’d met her human love, Greg Universe? Wasn’t that where she’d felt truly free and independent? Where she’d taken a stand against the Diamond Authority as the famous Rose Quartz, soldier of Earth and fighter of Homeworld regime? She could never dream of hurting that planet or its inhabitants. Pink Diamond was heartbroken and lost, but not that selfish. 

_ __ _

White had given the gems around her orders to poof her if necessary, and Pink didn’t doubt that they would do so without hesitation should she try to escape; since Yellow and Blue Diamond were still in their gems, Homeworld’s lower-class ones had been under twice the amount of stress as usual. 

_ __ _

One step out of line or a failed assignment could mean shattering nowadays, with how White’s patience was already immensely thin.

_ __ _

Guards had been posted around her doors and outside, constantly patrolling the hallways and underneath her balcony to ensure she didn’t leave. 

_ __ _

Not as if she tried. Sleeping helped to pass the time she spent in her chambers, even if her dreams almost always did turn to nightmares. Some were just wistful, reminding her of what she’d lost— her friends, her battle, her son— others, rarer still, offered a welcome distraction from her current reality. 

_ __ _

The time Pink Diamond spent awake was usually to dance to a tune only she knew, humming quietly and spinning on the smooth floor, trying to ignore the worried stares of her pebbles from the walls, normally so cheery and talkative. Even they seemed to sense her misery. 

_ __ _

Her old Pearl— now damaged, unsettling— visited every dawn of the day-cycle, reciting Homeworld’s set schedule for that day and asking Pink, each time without fail, whether she was ready to drop this “silly game” and take up her full duties as a dictator of Homeworld. 

_ __ _

The terse voice of White Diamond never wavered when Pearl used it, though her tone sometimes seemed passive-aggressive or impatient. Pink couldn’t care less. She wasn’t going to simply give in and give up on everything she’d fought to dismantle as Rose. 

_ __ _

Let White be angry. 

_ __ _

Let White _shatter_ her, for stars’ sake. It’d be better than _this_. 

_ __ _

One day, when the Pearl arrives, she waits for Pink’s “No”. 

_ __ _

But instead of her usual “Very well, Starlight”, Pink watched in mild confusion as the Pearl remained where she was, hovering just above the floor. 

_ __ _

“There’s a coming announcement, Starlight, eyes up!” 

_ __ _

Pearl raised her arms and summoned a screen above her head. It buzzed to life, eventually revealing the bright face of White Diamond. 

_ __ _

Pearl spoke in perfect unison with her Diamond as the broadcast began. “It is with great shame that I am announcing the fates of Yellow and Blue Diamond. Rebel gems have managed to ambush them, like cowards—“ 

_ __ _

Pink bristled... that was a lie! White had poofed her fellow Diamonds _herself_! 

_ __ _

“— and they now are recovering in the palace. For the time being, I am ordering that we devote our resources to Earth. It is to my understanding that the Cluster was not allowed to develop to fullness, this must be seen to completion. We are in dire need of resources, as you all know...” 

_ __ _

White paused, expression unchanging, but Pink knew her better than most— something flashed in her pale eyes. She had something else to say. 

_ __ _

The Pearl’s good eye twitched as she opened her mouth again, in sync with White. “I am also announcing that Pink Diamond has been found alive. She has been influenced by the rebellion, however, and I command that she be apprehended at once and turned in to me if found anywhere besides her place here on Homeworld. Her shattering was a mere farce. We must not allow this to occur again.”

_ __ _

Pink Diamond’s eyes were wide as the broadcast ended and the Pearl floated silently back through the wall. She hadn’t expected White to be honest about her “death”— White usually preferred to keep up appearances. A rebel Diamond could be seen as a flaw in the Authority. 

_ __ _

And then she understood: White was doing this out of necessity. With the notion of rebellion came fear, motivation to adhere to the rules even more rigidly than before. This honesty was not for the sake of candor, but to divide Homeworld and rebellious gems further. 

_ __ _

Pink stood up from her bed, gaze fixed on White’s distant ship. If she had had a heart, it would have been hammering away. 

_ __ _

The Cluster... it would destroy all organic life on Earth. 

_ __ _

She couldn’t just let that happen. Not without a fight. 

_ __ _

Pink walked over to her balcony and leaned over the edge, looking out. The vast, unfriendly-looking expanse of Homeworld stretched out before her, filled with structures reaching impossible heights and depths. She knew it fairly well— after she’d first emerged on Homeworld, she’d spent much of her time with Blue, sometimes Yellow, just exploring each new area as it developed. 

_ __ _

But how easy would it be to navigate now? It had been thousands of years... things had changed. 

_ __ _

There were countless new layers, for one, making the planetoid a confusing maze of twists and turns that even a Diamond like herself might get lost in. Even with her semblance of knowledge, would she be able to find a vacant ship and make for Earth without being caught? 

_ __ _

Speaking of, Pink glanced down. A Citrine guard was giving her a very dirty look— something she might have been punished heavily for in another time, but now simply a warning that she’d used force to carry out White’s orders, no matter what. 

_ __ _

Pink sighed, clenching her fists. She averted her eyes back to the horizon. This was going to be impossible! 

_ __ _

Then, a new thought occurred to her: she stepped back into the cover of her room and shapeshifted into Rose, feeling the familiar comfort of her flower-like dress fall gently around her bare feet. 

_ __ _

Well, this disguise _specifically_ wasn’t a great idea, she knew, but perhaps she could take on another form. But what was close enough in color that wasn’t suspicious? 

_ __ _

Concentrating, Pink Diamond shrank into a more compact form, giggling to herself as she took the adorably square shape of a Ruby guard. 

_ __ _

Her gem, turned on its side like Rose’s, was still on her belly, and if one inspected closely, still appeared to be a Quartz’s gemstone— but as she examined herself, her color was almost perfect. Experimentally, Pink whispered to her pebbles, and within seconds her room became dark. 

_ __ _

In the low light, Pink looked just reddish enough to look like a genuine ruby. 

_ __ _

Now, all she had to do was think up a good story...

_ __ _


	2. Love-Hate Relationship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink Diamond goes for a high-stakes jog and ends up fairly traumatized. 
> 
> TW: Sexual assault, violence.
> 
> Currently booking my ticket directly to Hell.

Citrine frowned from below as Pink Diamond turned and went back inside her room. Her charge didn’t often come out of it, so seeing the pink gem out and about was reason to be on edge. 

After all, White Diamond herself had issued strict orders not to let her leave, and Citrine definitely wasn’t about to show mercy here— not even to a Diamond. 

So it was a surprise, some hours later, when she saw a tiny shape leap down from the balcony and run straight past her. 

“Stop!”, shouted Citrine. “Show yourself!” 

The small figure scooted to a halt and doubled back, and Citrine squinted— the rotation of the nearest star had changed and there wasn’t much light left to see in. 

It looked like a Ruby, her colors tinged strangely in the dying starlight. She saluted. “Apologies! My Diamond has... run off! So I’m— after her!” 

Citrine froze. How had she missed this?! “Where is she?”

The Ruby was backing away. “I’m... not sure?” 

Citrine was clutching her battle-axe for dear life. They were wasting time! “Just— just go to where you saw her heading last! I’ll follow! Move!” 

The ruby didn’t hesitate, taking off like a blast of raw energy, so speedy and small that she was tough to keep up with, even for a seasoned warrior like Citrine. How had Pink Diamond managed to evade this gem? 

They ran on for some time, and Citrine began to become increasingly more anxious. Where was Pink Diamond? Ruby seemed to run with a purpose, but Citrine couldn’t see their target anywhere. Was she really so sure they were going the right way? 

Ruby skidded to a halt as they burst out into a huge clearing. It was crawling with Quartzes on guard and a few Peridots doing a check-up on a central warp pad. 

Citrine slowed down— none of these gems, she noticed, were panicking. The Ruby immediately noticed Citrine hesitate and slowed as well. 

Which meant that Pink Diamond hadn’t come through here. 

Or at least... not as herself. 

“You!”, Citrine cried, skidding to a stop and pointing accusingly at the Ruby in front of her. “You’re not a Ruby, are you?” 

The small gem looked petrified, and as she stared back at Citrine, wide-eyed, her form glitched. It began to glow as she backed towards the warp pad. 

“That’s Pink Diamond! Stop her!”, screamed Citrine, rushing towards the pad, but even as some other Quartzes turned and saw her, it was too late. 

The glowing gem grew until she was the taller, regal shape of a Diamond, vanishing in a flash as Citrine collapsed uselessly onto the pad in a flash with dozens of other soldiers. 

Several tried to use the warp at once, Citrine included, but it didn’t work until all of them had stood up and stopped within its boundaries. 

Citrine was breathing hard from the defeat of being so easily tricked as she watched the walls of the warp, as the other Quartzes, mostly Amethysts and Carnelians, muttered nervously to one another. 

Obviously, Citrine reasoned, Pink Diamond must be trying to escape to Earth, and that was why the warp had worked: every gem there had had the same destination in mind. 

White Diamond had also made sure to disable all but one direct warp to Earth so that things could run more smoothly— and so that Pink Diamond would have less of a chance of escaping if she were to make her way to Earth that way, since said warp was heavily supervised. 

Citrine just hoped that their numbers would be enough to track down the unruly Diamond and bring her safely back to White. 

But as they landed, the warm sunlight of Pink’s former colony illuminating their forms, Citrine felt a hollow sense of dread. 

The two Jasper guards stationed around the Earth warp were exchanging confused words with Citrine’s companions. 

Which meant... 

Pink Diamond _hadn’t_ warped here. She could be anywhere. 

Citrine joined her fellow Quartzes as they prepared to head back and report their failure. 

She prayed she wouldn’t be shattered for this... 

•••

Pink Diamond had nearly been caught right after warping, but had been quick enough to save herself. Just barely. 

Her first instinct had been to go home— to Earth. Her planet. Her colony. 

But she’d remembered abruptly that it would of course be guarded— and she’d likely be outnumbered, not to mention a bit out of fighting practice. 

So she’d landed for less than a second on the sole remaining warp to Earth— flashing away, hopefully quickly enough not to draw attention. 

Pink closed her eyes for just a moment as she traveled faster than sound, trying to imagine a safe place that wasn’t Earth. 

When she found that memory, she latched onto it, feeling her feet land on a freezing cold, hard surface— and then she immediately floated up, summoning a spiked bubble around herself. 

Her eyes flew open as the bubble exploded, shards flying out and then dissipating out of existence as the warp pad under her was cracked into pieces. She could heal that later; she couldn’t risk being followed here right now. 

She didn’t hear the sharp sound of a gem’s form, pierced through by a shard of her bubble, evaporating behind her. 

Pink Diamond glanced around at where she’d landed: it was her garden, ancient and once-beautiful, filled with flora (and even some fauna) from Earth, with Yellow’s begrudging allowance. 

It had been her place of beauty away from from her ever-enchanting colony, a rare break from her duties often brought her here to tend to the organic life and play joyfully. 

Now, though, the air was thin, cold, the gardenscape devoid of the life and color it had once possessed. Pink took slow steps down the stairs, eyes scanning over the overgrowth. Hadn’t there been someone... 

“Spinel?”, she called hesitantly, trying to remember the last time she’d been here. What had she had the gem do? There had been something... 

Pink stopped in her tracks when she saw a strange pattern on the ground. Two distinct, rounded footprints— Pink suddenly remembered what she’d asked Spinel to do. 

How long had she stood there? Clearly, she’d gotten bored and wandered off, because she wasn’t in sight. But surely Spinel wouldn’t have allowed the garden to fall into such disrepair, even if she’d grown bored of the game somehow? Pink had tended to the garden with Spinel around before, it wasn’t like she didn’t know how. 

Pink was starting to get annoyed. For one, she really needed a lookout so that she could return to Earth with some help, but Spinel was nowhere to be found to ask to do it. For another, Pink’s garden was in such ruin that it looked almost ominous now, all creeping vines and shadowy pillars— Spinel hadn’t even _tried_ to keep it tidy! 

“Hello?”, Pink called. “Spinel, can you hear me? I’ve come back— you’ve... you’ve won our game! I need your help with something! Come out, won’t you?” 

There was no response. Pink wondered briefly if Spinel had gotten so bored that she’d warped back to Homeworld, but then she recalled that Spinel couldn’t, even if she’d wanted to— any loyal gem would be strongly inclined to carry out their Diamond’s orders, no matter how taxing. Had something happened...? 

As Pink Diamond wandered the area, searching and calling, there was a form hovering just behind the warp pad and out of sight. 

A heart-shaped pink gem had risen into the air, its owner taking shape— but as the gem opened her eyes and saw a figure some distance away, she hesitated. 

Emotions flashed over the gem’s face— first tearful relief, because her Diamond, her best friend in the universe, was finally _back_— but then shock and anger, because this gem had seen White Diamond’s broadcast. She knew that Pink Diamond hadn’t really died. 

And now she was here when she wasn’t supposed to be, not for Spinel, not at first, but here to escape her responsibilities like always? 

No— _no_! This wasn’t right! It was cruel, so very cruel, because this gem had waited for so, so long... only to be left here! 

And now Pink Diamond was calling out for her as an _afterthought_? Why, the sheer nerve... 

The gem’s form shifted as furious tears streaked down her face, her hair, which had been unkempt for so many thousands of years, turning wilder, her once small and friendly shape becoming sharper as she alighted quietly on the ground.

She crept further behind the destroyed warp pad’s shadow, skirting the central area and staying out of her Diamond’s sight as she came upon a small hole in the ground. 

Pink Diamond’s discarded weapon was lying in the ditch, where it had been for many centuries before she’d left. 

Pink had always been softhearted, even in the face of danger— the thought of removing a gem’s memories had been too much for her to bear, and thus she’d left the weapon that her fellow Diamonds had given her to lie, unused, in this empty corner of her garden, saying that it wasn’t of any use to her. 

It seemed like it might come in handy now, however. 

Pink Diamond was back 6,000 years too late and she was about to pay dearly for that. 

Playtime was over. 

•••

It had been only about fifteen minutes since Pink had landed back in her old garden, and already she was feeling hopeless. She was stranded here— well, she could technically just ‘heal’ the warp and leave, but it was still too risky without help. 

Which she clearly wasn’t going to find here. Where could her Spinel have gone? Pink didn’t even think that the smaller gem knew of any other places— she’d emerged on Homeworld and had been whisked straightaway to the garden as a gift to Pink. So why wasn’t she here? 

Out of the corner of her eye, Pink thought she saw a flash of movement from behind a pillar, the area around it dark and unclear. 

“Hello?” 

She received no response. Confused, she approached the pillar, peering behind it—

“Wh—aagh!” Something had caught her leg and yanked her by it into the air. 

Pink was about to form a defensive bubble when she came face-to-face with a gem, though it was hard to see who it was dangling upside-down. 

The unfamiliar gem flipped her head to match Pink’s, all twisted limbs and exaggerated motions. She was grinning widely, the dark streaks on her face dripping past her cheekbones. 

Something about her, Pink realized, was... _not_ unfamiliar. The Diamond squinted. “_Spinel_? Is that you?” 

“Ya guessed it, old pal... wanna tell me where you went off to for 6,000 years?” 

Her tone was still lively, cheery, but it didn’t seem genuine anymore. Her gem was flipped on its head, turned in the opposite direction. Had that been... _bitterness_ behind her words? Pink frowned. 

“You... you look so different.” 

Spinel’s smile instantly vanished. “Oh, I do, do I?” She shook Pink by her leg. “Been so long that ya don’t recognize me, huh?” 

“Stop that! I’m not playing with you— I thought you _liked_ games?” , protested Pink, preparing to summon her bubble in case she couldn’t shake the persistent gem. 

Spinel’s eyes widened, her pupils warping into dizzying angry spirals as she scoffed. “What kind of a game was that, leaving me here for thousands of years by myself?”

“What was I supposed to do? I had important things to take care of, you’d have only gotten in the way—“

“You could have _TAKEN ME WITH YOU_!”, Spinel shrieked, and before Pink had time to react, the other had pulled out a baton from her gem. 

Pink Diamond froze. She knew what it was immediately: It was her own rejuvenator, the formidable weapon Yellow had given her “in case of emergencies”, the one she’d tossed into a hole in this very garden. She waited before summoning any bubbles; she still didn’t want to risk injuring Spinel unless necessary. 

Spinel clicked the handle, and it extended, a hooked blade coming out of the end to form a scythe. She aimed it at Pink. 

“I should hit you with this and then shatter you _right here_.” 

Her words sent a cold shock through Pink. “Wh—what? Spinel, don’t be unreasonable, you’re not thinking straight!” 

For an instant, Spinel seemed to consider this. She glanced at the glowing weapon in her hand. 

After a petrifying few seconds, she clicked it off again. “You’re right.” 

Relief washed over Pink. “Thank goodness you’ve seen sense—“ 

She was cut off as Spinel tossed the inactive baton aside, grabbed her other leg, and swung her into the pillar front-first. 

The resounding crack cut through Pink Diamond’s senses and made the impact of the ground seem numbly silent in comparison. 

She crumpled to the ground, clutching her middle in utter shock. Spinel had cracked her gem. 

“If I’m being honest here, I don’t think you’re even worthy of shattering”, came a voice from above her. 

Pink tried, too late, to form a bubble, but the effort actually hurt. She could only stare in astonishment as her former playmate, who had been so sweet, once, so silly, so lighthearted— slither unsettlingly to the ground in front of her, her new form far less inviting. 

“What are you doing?”, Pink cried. “I’m being hunted by my own gems right now and... and you’ve turned against me as well? What did I do to—“

“Deserve this? Oh ho ho...”, Spinel chuckled. “You don’t even realize how positively selfish you sound, Pink. Did you really think I’d _enjoy_ standing here until my gem fell off? Did you think I was that _simple-minded_?” 

“Well, no, but—“ 

“I’ve just about had it with you, you know that? I was made for you! And you made me play the fool— not anymore!” 

Pink Diamond shrank back, still holding her injured gem as Spinel slammed her closed fist onto the ground where she’d been only seconds before. With a frustrated growl, Spinel shot forwards like a slingshot and bowled her over, tumbling with her out into the grass-covered central area. 

Pink balled up as she landed, frightened of further damaging her gem as they came to a halt. She narrowly managed to duck to one side as another blow came from above her, but the next one hit her right in the jaw. 

Reeling, one of Pink’s hands flew reflexively to her face, her teeth gritted, but Spinel’s arm extended and she pinned her wrist to the ground beside her, face full of rage. 

Pink tried to aim a punch of her own at Spinel, but her hand returned instantly to her stomach; she didn’t want to leave her gem exposed. Spinel was quick to catch her other hand as well. 

“Betcha wish you had a weapon, hmm?”, taunted Spinel, narrowing her eyes. 

Pink curled her lip, trying in vain to free her hands, but with her gem cracked, she was much weaker than usual. “You’re going to regret this when you’re found out, Spinel. You’ll be shattered if I die!” 

But the other gem just laughed. “Not gonna happen. Like I said— killing you would be _mercy_.” 

With that, Spinel glowed briefly, forming another arm and hand from her torso. It wasn’t gloved, like her other ones, oddly enough, the skin of her hand the same pale pink as the rest. It stretched down and hovered over Pink’s gem. 

The dread of being shattered was too much to bear— Pink Diamond trembled helplessly as Spinel held her life in her hands, but the final blow never came. 

Instead, Spinel lightly tapped the gemstone, stifling laughter when her Diamond flinched. Her third hand moved slightly down and fastened its grip around the soft ‘fabric’ of Pink’s outfit. 

Pink tensed up. “What are you doing?” 

Spinel smiled somewhat maniacally. Pink hardly had time to react before she felt the hand on her tug hard, pulling the bottoms of her attire down her waist. 

Pink Diamond yelped, bringing up her legs and trying to kick Spinel off of her, but as she did so, two more new limbs shot out of Spinel like some kind of an Earth insect and held down her legs. 

The hand at her front resumed what it was doing until Pink was bare from the waist down, save for her shoes. 

Gems didn’t have a need to be intimate as humans did, of course, but as Rose Quartz, she’d become as human as she possibly could, especially when she learned about child bearing and how to do it. She and Greg had been curious, nervous— but mostly excited. 

Pink hadn’t even considered that she would still have this... structure... as a part of her form after she’d come back— but it definitely wasn’t welcome _now_, not when she couldn’t just morph it away in her current state. 

Another surprised yelp escaped her as Spinel’s free hand met with her inner thigh, moving up the smooth skin until it found its target. 

Pink bit her tongue when she felt two of the fingers of Spinel’s hand part the skin there and insert themselves into her. She hadn’t been touched... _there_ in so long... but this was unwanted. 

She shivered and screwed her eyes shut, fighting back frustrated tears as the fingers moved in her, slipping slowly in and out at first and then more roughly, with increasingly harsher jabbing motions.

Pink began to jolt and buck involuntarily from the feeling, her sensory nodes almost overwhelmed when Spinel pressed her thumb right against her sensitive outer nub, the two fingers still rubbing slickly against her insides. 

And then the sensation stopped. Pink opened her eyes. 

Spinel pulled out her fingers with a wet sound, a look of both fascination and triumph in her own piercing gaze as she ran her tongue along her hand without blinking. Pink suppressed a sob. 

Spinel glowed as she retracted the fifth arm back into herself, still gripping Pink’s limbs with the remaining four. Pink was openly crying now, still trying to free her own limbs, but Spinel didn’t release her hold.

Her form glowed white again, and Pink Diamond wasn’t even sure of what was changing until Spinel lowered herself onto her, canting her hips forward with a deranged laugh. 

To Pink’s horror, something started pressing into her again— Spinel clearly wasn’t as naive as she’d thought. The new appendage breached her easily, twitching at the stimulation as it was forced deeper. 

Spinel moaned in contentment above her, sighing as she sank halfway into the weakened Diamond. Pink’s back arched in simultaneous pain and pleasure, her restrained hands clenched into fists. 

“Ooh, sounds like somebody’s enjoying themselves down there!”, Spinel breathed. Pink’s eyes were blurry with tears. _Not because I want to!_

She cried out when Spinel suddenly thrust forward, slamming her full length into Pink’s core. 

Both gems took a moment to recover. Pink had hit her head painfully against the pavement underneath her and was seeing more stars than she should have been, but at least it took her focus away from Spinel. 

...Until she resumed her movements, thrusting into the wet heat of her former playmate until she went over the edge and came, spilling herself into her. 

Pink had also reached her limit, and she hissed under her breath before she climaxed as well, feeling what little energy she had left seep out of her. 

Spinel withdrew herself immediately and phased her outfit back together, retracting her extra arms as Pink Diamond lay staring into space below her. 

“How’s it feel to lose for once?”, Spinel jeered, getting to her feet, immediately irate. 

Pink didn’t even register it, swaying frailly when Spinel dragged her roughly back onto her feet without another word. She half-fell, half-leaned against a pillar, shivering uncontrollably while Spinel darted a few leaps away to retrieve the rejuvenator, springing back with it fully activated. 

“I need _your_ help with something”, she demanded coldly, gesturing with the scythe, but Pink didn’t move, her mind still refusing to process anything that was happening. 

“Ugh.” 

Spinel shot out her other hand and grabbed the back of Pink Diamond’s outfit, holding her aloft, and stretched the arm, dropping her at the broken warp pad. 

“_Fix it_.”

Pink would have refused it she hadn’t already been sobbing profusely. Her legs felt weak. A stray tear landed on the pad under her. She tried to scrub it off it no avail: it was working already. 

Spinel jumped in front of her, weapon sheathed, and promptly booted Pink off of the pad with a sharp kick. 

As Pink fell back, Spinel was giggling, waving mockingly with a hand as she watched the Diamond stumble. 

“See ya around!” 

The last thing Pink Diamond saw before she poofed immediately on impact with the ground was Spinel warping away into space.


	3. Waiting Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink Diamond has more than a few moments to herself.

Every sense was blank. 

Pink Diamond had been poofed before, sure, but never cracked, not once in all her thousands of years, never damaged this badly. To ‘awaken’ now inside her gem felt scarier than it ever had. 

As usual, Pink was in an endless dreamscape not unlike her old room at the Temple, tinged in all her colors and completely barren besides her own form. 

This time, however, the normally comforting winds had turned chilly, uncertain. It felt like a _bad dream_. Pink Diamond examined her mental projection of herself, seeing nothing out of order, and then began to contemplate about the shape of her form. 

What to change, what not to change? Perhaps a tweak of her outfit... Everything felt hazy, warped. Pink wasn’t sure she even knew who she was. 

And then the memories— ones from long ago and ones from sooner— materialized all at once, walloping her in a wave of emotion. 

_Right_, she thought. _Cracked. I’ll need to reform and heal myself before anything else can happen._

So she did. Concentrating with every scrap of strength, Pink Diamond came out of her trance, the feeling of stale air hitting her form before she’d even solidified. 

Rather ungracefully, she fell out of the air, her limbs blipping out of place along with the rest of her, outline becoming more unclear as she landed. Wasting no time, Pink leaned over her own gemstone, willing herself to cry. 

She didn’t expect it to be so _hard_. 

Disoriented, she opened her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried again. 

Nothing. 

What was this all about? She’d nearly been shattered so little a time ago and now she _couldn’t_ cry? 

She jumped at a noise from the warp pad. _Rats!_ Pink had forgotten that she’d healed it. Forgetting the crying for a moment, she crawled over to and behind one of the garden’s pillars. 

It wasn’t a gem who had warped here, to her further confusion, but a drone of sorts. She’d seen these before: they had many uses, from repair, to weapons, to visual surveillance. 

Oddly, the tiny drone, which was a metallic red, hopped off of the pad and circled it as if sizing it up. Pink furrowed her brow— what was it doing here? It looked like her court— maybe a Morganite’s? 

Surely it wasn’t here to repair the warp? Her tears had healed it completely, there was no doubt. 

The drone hopped back again, produced a small, narrow tube— and fired something out of it. It was a blinding beam of energy, not any sort of healing goop Pink Diamond had ever seen. As it hit the warp, she saw cracks begin to form again... it wasn’t healing, it was harming. 

Pink didn’t know _why_ it would do that, but she did take comfort in the fact that this meant no one would follow her here for at least a little while until she healed the warp again. 

Still watching the tiny drone disabling the pad, Pink turned back around, hiccuping awkwardly as her cracked gem let out a flare of light. She needed to fix this. 

“Why can’t I cry?”, she murmured aloud. “I’ve plenty to cry about.” 

No matter how much she wanted to, however, not even thinking of Steven was doing the trick. Was it because she’d been cracked so badly? 

“Suppose it’s time for Plan B.” 

Pink reached out into the nearest bramble-bush and wrapped her hand around a thorny stem as tightly as she could. 

It stung horribly— finally, tears sprang to her eyes. She didn’t have time to dwell on why she’d had to resort to pain. Pink was shaking as she hunched over to let them fall onto her gem. 

The relief was instantaneous. The gemstone glowed with new health and she felt her strength returning to her as she floated upwards, careful to stay in the shadow of the pillar in case the drone spotted her and proved to be hostile. 

Pink Diamond looked at her hands as she floated. She didn’t want to be Rose again, it felt like someone else, too distant, another life. 

But she didn’t really want to be Pink Diamond, either. Not the old one, anyway. She was sick to death of Homeworld and the Diamond Authority— she wasn’t _like_ those other Diamonds. 

She belonged on Earth, she was meant to be free, strong... 

Pink exhaled as her form began to change— her fluffy cloud of hair remained, but much less of it— the back of it peaked into several spikes as she remembered viewing her own mural depictions. 

Those had made her feel like she was less of a Diamond back then, as if she wasn’t who she was meant to be, but now she wanted to take those images, make something from them. 

So she did: her casual, bouncy outfit became more like her default Quartz one she’d displayed as Rose before her dress, but she focused on her shoulders as well, creating downward-sloping plates of armor with little stars on their top faces— reminders of the days of the Crystal Gems. 

As for her legwear, Pink did away with the silly pink shoes, forming more durable-looking ones, tinged a slightly less vibrant shade of pink, reaching as far as her knees and ending in pointed edges past them. 

Pink felt almost renewed, like she could fight how she did in the old days, but something stopped her from fully forming as her more recent memories began to seep right through her new armor. 

Confusion, when White had brought her back. Grief, loss, when her only son had died right in front of her. Hopelessness, after she’d been locked away.

And fear and shame, after Spinel. 

The weight of these feelings seemed to swamp her, and Pink didn’t see it, but as she finally took form behind the pillar, her complexion had dulled ever-so-slightly, and dark shadows had developed under her bright eyes— she was not quite _weary_-looking, no, simply less full of hope. 

Pink Diamond took a few experimental steps in the new outfit and armor, testing her balance. 

She felt better... felt protected.

She summoned her shield, noting its new, more muted colors, the thorns of the rose now a gray-black. Despite herself, Pink didn’t hate it. 

Stepping cautiously into the clearing, Pink prepared to face the drone, but she couldn’t see it. She leapt up, floating towards the warp pad for a better vantage point. 

Almost at once something shot at her, hitting her shield as she summoned it not a moment too soon. The beam of energy refracted and hit the warp pad, forming another wide crack in the material. 

The drone jumped into Pink’s view, firing tiny blasts at her as she struggled to get closer without getting hit, but each blast she blocked shot right back at the warp pad until she landed, shield raised. 

Out of nowhere, two more drones appeared— had they already been here? They joined the original in shooting at her, but one was taken out a few seconds in by a reflected hit. 

Pink tried to aim her shield to do the same to the others, and nearly succeeded, but as she blocked one hit, the other drone managed to graze her arm. She hissed in pain and fell back into the clearing.

The drones didn’t continue attacking, strangely, but turned and began to rip out the ruined chunks of the warp pad with their stubby artificial limbs, firing them out into the endless sky as they did. 

Watching, Pink Diamond realized that they were dismantling it beyond repair: if they discarded every single piece, she wouldn’t be able to leave. 

With a battle cry, she formed a bubble and launched herself at the pad to knock off the drones. They dodged just in time, using the bubble’s momentum as it bounced to send her flying backwards, and Pink braced for the impact as she was sent soaring back over the central fountain. 

Now Pink was getting worried. She hadn’t thought they’d be this hard to beat. She narrowed her eyes as her bubble evaporated, pinpointing their location, and threw her shield at one of them. 

Annoyingly, her target jumped sideways as the shield crashed into the rubble that was now the warp pad. 

“You’re kidding me...”

Pink started running, summoning more shields and hurling them at the drones— if she could just knock them away, then damaging the pad further didn’t matter as long as there was _something_ usable left of it in the end. 

But they just shot at her again once she got close, still sending chunks of the warp flying into orbit as they did so, until there was scarcely anything left for Pink to use. 

She was getting desperate. “Stop it! I... command... you?” 

No response. Great... The drones didn’t seem to register her as someone to listen to.

Suddenly, Pink got an idea. Perhaps, if she could just grab a chunk of the warp pad for herself, she could try to reform it elsewhere. Ducking below an energy blast, she stooped down behind her shield, pulling a large, fractured piece of the material from the ground and instantly bouncing out of reach. 

_Yes!_ Now she could try and get out of here! 

Oh, no. 

They were following her. 

Pink muttered a curse under her breath and upped her defense, hurling shield after shield at the drones all while dodging their own attacks. 

She managed, miraculously, to hit one so hard that it flew into the side of the fountain and exploded into bits, but just as she did so, the sole remaining drone fired a blast that hit the piece of warp pad she’d been holding. 

Dismay was apparent on Pink’s face as she watched it crumble to useless dust in her hand. She would have to destroy this final drone and find another piece to use, or she’d never get off this planetoid. 

It took her more time than she cared to admit to eliminate the last drone, but when she did, Pink didn’t hesitate a moment before dashing off to where the warp pad had stood. 

It was hardly more than a pile of rubble at this point— chunks of the blueish material lay strewn across the pedestal it was on top of, the biggest ones not even reaching Pink’s own size. 

_I’ve got to try_.

Pink grabbed the nearest chunk and sat down on the stairs, taking a deep breath. She had to try and heal this...

But, as before, no tears would come. Her most terrible, rotten memories didn’t create even a spark of emotion within her. Pink felt her shoulders sag, her newly formed plates of armor clinking softly as she did so. This was becoming a problem. 

What was _wrong_ with her? Why was crying so difficult now?

Sighing, Pink Diamond got to her feet, placing the piece carefully amongst its demolished companions and heading towards the nearest thorn bush. 

She plucked a spiny stem and returned with it, forcing herself to squeeze until it stung, and tears finally pricked at her eyes. 

No matter how positively useless this was making her feel, it didn’t matter now. She was getting out of here at last. 

But the small relief that came with the notion soon diminished: as her tears fell on the broken rubble, nothing happened. 

“What?”, Pink muttered aloud, not believing her eyes. 

They weren’t deceiving her. She let her last few tears fall, waiting, tense, hopeful...

And nothing. It wasn’t working. 

She got up, fists clenched. _No!_ Had it all been for nothing, that entire battle she’d just fought? Those thorns pricking painfully in her skin? 

She’d been too late in the end— the drones really had dismantled her only way out behind repair. She should have been _faster_... Pink’s hands found themselves wanting to break something. 

So she did. 

Seething, she summoned her shield again, throwing it at the ruined warp, watching as it blew through the fragile remains and dissipated on the ground at the other end of the shallow hole. Then she did it again, and again, and again— until nothing was left but blue dust and a pile of drone limbs. 

She sank to her knees. Was this really how she was going to spend eternity, trapped in this desolate shell of a garden with nothing but her own despair? 

It wasn’t fair. It _wasn’t!_

If the drones she’d defeated hadn’t been completely smashed to bits, Pink might have tried to use it for communication. Sure, she’s just have been taken back to her room to be a prisoner on her own home planet, but it would have been a better fate than this. 

Well, maybe not. She smiled sadly to herself— perhaps this was what she deserved for thinking her insane, last-minute plan might actually work. 

Now, she really was stranded, and the Earth would soon be doomed to a slow, cruel death, along with every living organic thing on it. Including her Greg. 

It was a numb feeling, the knowledge that she couldn’t do a single thing about it. Could she bubble herself and hope she headed in the right direction? Sure— but Earth was bound to be guarded, even then. She had no viable allies, no way to stop the colonization and destruction of an entire planet on her own. Even if Pink did ever somehow reach Earth, she’d never do it in time. 

Pink was done taking her anger out on the warp pad. She floated up, alighting on the top of a pillar and looking down at the ground like an Earth-bird might. If Amethyst were here, she would have no doubt shapeshifted into some noisy flying fowl and sang until her voice gave out. She cringed to think of all of the magnificently interesting and diverse flora and fauna that would die out after the Cluster had taken form. They would all be lost... 

Hours began to pass by, feeling more like minutes, and then more like mere seconds. But somehow, time also seemed to stand still. 

She waited. 

For what, she didn’t know. Maybe for nothing at all, but she waited nonetheless. What else could she do? 

There were no day-cycles here, only the infinite expanse of space above and around her, stars beginning to pick up speed in the sky as Pink Diamond watched them from her vantage point. The stars were easier to focus on— easier than her thoughts, which grew increasingly anxious and chaotic. 

The knowledge that Steven was gone still felt like a fresh wound. What would he do, Pink wondered? What had he been like?

She’d never gotten to really know him, and how could she have— she’d willingly given her form so that he might live. Might grow. Might flourish, like how her flowers and plants here in the garden had used to, back all those thousands of years ago, when... 

Pink Diamond shuddered where she sat. She wanted to change the mental subject, but her mind drifted to the gem she had once played freely with here. 

Back in those early days, Pink had been so naive— so _bored_. Sp— _that gem_— had helped with that. She’d been naive then too, much younger, only knowing how to fulfill her sole purpose as entertainer and companion. 

Sort of like an Earth-dog. 

Because that’s what she’d been, to her, at least, if Pink were being truthful. A pet. 

Something to play with and admire, something you treasured enough to ‘love’, but it was the sort of love that a human might have for their gold or artifacts, a love that didn’t have much room for the needs of the object of their affections. 

It was a love that didn’t extend very far at all. 

And Pink supposed she should feel badly for that, but what else had she _herself_ ever known but than to be needed as a thing, as a mere presence meant to perform the duties of a Diamond without question? No gem was _that_ robotic— not even White Diamond, no matter how much she acted like it. Not by default. 

Humans and gems weren’t really so different in that sense. No being that Pink knew of was incapable of emotion, but gems just pretended that they weren’t there. For efficiency’s sake. For the sake of Homeworld and the gem empire.

It was natural to feel, but not natural to show it. 

That’s why it had been so easy to treat her _entertainer_ as such— as only being there for a purpose. Because that’s how she was taught, though she knew better than that— but what was really the easier option? Speaking up and getting shot down by her fellow Diamonds for nothing or simply indulging in one of her birthrights? It was pointless to try and be a hero.

The war she’d started had been different. 

It had been a buildup of things over so many centuries, a buildup of restlessness, mostly, but seeing Earth in the flesh had convinced Pink Diamond that there was something finally worth speaking up about— for stars’ sake, it was a _planet-sized_ issue! 

So of _course_ she’d decided that this was the time to take action. If she’d helped free gems that agreed with her along the way, then that was fine by her. 

It was never about growing bored of playing in the garden. Pink had simply not found a reason worthy of causing a ruckus until Earth, and when the war had started, the thought of the gem she’d left here had never once crossed her mind. 

She’d been busy thinking about Earth, and the rebellion, and the Diamonds, and wonderful, strange, _fascinating_ humans— and so _what_ if that made her selfish? Pink had gained her freedom. She had spent most of her early centuries following orders, and now it had been her turn to get away from all of that. 

She remembered, with fondness, first being on Earth. 

And Pink— _Rose_, back then, had been equally taken with their entire species— what funny organic creatures! They changed as they aged, living such small, meaningless lives that they had to fill every day with purpose to feel productive. They laughed and cried and yelled and sang, so many sounds and so many feelings. So much freedom. 

Humans could be strict too, Pink knew that of course, but their rules were different. It was still refreshing compared to Homeworld. 

Pink could still recall her first human ‘experience’... many humans had been quite taken with her when she’d first appeared on Earth as Rose Quartz. She’d experimented on many an occasion over the centuries before she had met Greg Universe. 

Her first sexual escapade had been a bit confusing at first, but not altogether bad. Gems didn’t naturally have genitalia or receptors meant solely for physical pleasure when they _first_ emerged, as they were created mostly for war or other purposes, but even on Homeworld, the higher castes would talk in hushed tones of “sensual activities”. 

It was nigh more than rumor, but word got around— and Pink had always been curious about what any of it meant, though she’d never asked Blue and Yellow. She knew, despite the cold harshness of Homeworld law and its efforts to quell anything it seemed unfit of gem culture, that gems sometimes fused when they weren’t meant to, or held hands, or exchanged glances that were so much more than empty looks. 

It hadn’t been until Pink had met Garnet that she’d truly understood what love _could_ be. 

But even by then, Pink had never even known what sexuality was, or that it existed at all. Humans had introduced her and she had changed her form to accommodate, eventually making permanent changes to make her feel a bit more like one of them. 

She knew that whatever gems did, it would understandably _look_ a bit different, but it did happen. Most beings had the capacity to experiment in that way, that much she knew. 

So, then, why had it been so _awful_ this... most recent time? Pink Diamond had never imagined that such a normally pleasant and exciting act could be so... 

Negative... terrifying. Painful, even. 

It hurt to think about, but think she did. There was nothing else to do but think. 

It had made her feel... as if her thoughts didn’t matter, like it didn’t make a difference what she wanted or felt or asked for. 

It had honestly made her feel like a lesser gem. 

Pink came back to the present— whenever that was, anyway— and realized that, for the first time since she’d reformed, she was crying. 

Sobbing, really. Ugly and violently and so intensely that she nearly fell off the pillar she’d been sitting on. Nearly. Something seemed to be holding her there, in any case. 

She didn’t know why, but crying felt better. It was much better than just sitting and staring.

It was also worse— she felt like she were finally catching up with what had happened, the loss of her son, the doom of her colony, the frightening experience with a... certain gem. 

It was several minutes before Pink stopped crying, and by that time, she’d made whatever had been wrapped around her waist and legs grow twice as fast with her tears, the vines that had grown over her now a vibrant, bright green. 

Oh. 

They’d been growing _on_ her. 

Just... how long had she been here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there wasn’t a whole lot of action, but worry not, shit’s about to get crazy. Thanks for reading this far!


	4. Field Trip

There was, unquestionably, a generous amount of plant life coiled around Pink Diamond’s waist and part of her legs. How had she not noticed it before? 

Prying the vines apart with stiff hands, Pink began to notice other things in her surroundings: the garden had become ever-so-slightly more overgrown; it was hardly different to her eyes, but being a gem, time was often hard to gauge specifically. 

As Pink looked around, she wondered when the clearing had gotten so dark. It seemed to lay completely in shadow. 

And then she noticed how the shadow’s edges were moving, and glanced up. 

The garden wasn’t shadowy— it was the result of a large, angular-looking ship hovering overhead. It drew closer and landed a short distance away from Pink, behind one of the rows of pillars, blowing dead grass and debris everywhere as it settled on the dying ground. 

Ignoring her first instinct to run up to it, Pink Diamond jumped down from her perch, leaning on the opposite side of the pillar to the ship as to observe it more safely. She didn’t know who was piloting it— for all she knew, it could be a group of Homeworld gems sent to apprehend her— or... worse....

But when a door popped open near the ground , the figure that stepped out of it wasn’t to do with Homeworld at all. 

It was a human. 

An adult, by her height and proportions, lanky in build yet muscular and tough-looking. Her brown skin was riddled with scars, some slight and thin, others larger, nastier. The most prominent one was across her nose and cheekbone, a pale white line that became steadily clearer as she hiked her way over to where Pink was. 

“I thought I might find you here”, the human called, but Pink ducked behind her pillar, snapping out of the trance of interest she’d been in. 

The human woman sighed. “You know I already saw you, right? I’m not here to arrest you, I promise.” 

Slowly, Pink Diamond stepped out from behind the pillar, shield raised in caution. The human’s face was stern, but not unkind. She held out a gloved hand to shake. 

“I’m Connie Maheswaran, I knew your son. You must be Pink Diamond.” 

“...Oh. Can I, uh, trust you?” 

Connie nodded. “Of course. Ever since your disappearance was announced, I’ve been looking for you, especially since White called off the search.” She paused, eyeing Pink’s shoulder-plates. “You look different than how I remember.” 

“She... called it off?”

Connie hadn’t expected Pink Diamond to be so unaware of things, but with a glance at the only communication screen, which was overgrown with vines and cracked beyond recognition, she understood why. 

“Yeah. How long have you been here? The whole time?” 

Pink was quiet for a spell. She didn’t really know, did she? Time had seemed both short and immeasurably long to her. 

She met Connie’s eyes, rubbing an arm awkwardly. “I’m not sure.” 

“It’s fine. I guess it doesn’t matter. I came here to rescue you, if you want.” 

Pink laughed harshly, shaking her head. “I’d rather be shattered than stay here another moment.” 

Connie’s ship looked bigger on the inside. It wasn’t in bad shape, though by the looks of it, it wasn’t newly made. It reminded Pink of how ships had used to look when she’d only recently emerged herself. 

She was led to the main room, which had an area for seating with a worn-down yet comfortable looking couch, which Connie invited her to sit in. Pink gladly obliged. It was certainly better than cold, crumbling stone. 

“Thank you”, Pink murmured as she sat down. 

Glancing around, she noticed a few large star-maps on the high walls, some of them with pins and X’s as if Connie had been traveling for quite some time. There was an odd little device near the control panel, a box-shape with a textured white exterior that glowed slightly from whatever lay inside, attached to the floor by a wire and some bolts on the corners. 

“What’s that?” , Pink asked. 

“My fridge.”

When Pink looked confused, Connie explained, “It’s a food storage device. I stock it with the things that I grow on here.” 

“You... grow things?” 

Connie nodded. “I have a room where I grow stuff like sweet potatoes, or leeks, or chard. It’s all the leftover seeds that I managed to get from Earth before White started sending Homeworld soldiers to keep tabs on the Cluster.” 

At the mention of the Cluster, Pink Diamond felt her form grow cold; she’d all but forgotten about it in the flurries of untamed thoughts and worries she’d been caught in for the past decade or so. If the Cluster had been re-activated, then... 

“Has it...” , she broke off, unable to finish the thought. 

Connie looked sympathetic, sighing as she sat in her chair by the dashboard. “Yes. It’s emerged, if that’s what you’re asking. But Earth isn’t destroyed yet.” 

“How is that possible?”, Pink whispered. “The purpose of the Cluster was to—“ 

“It didn’t exactly work out.” 

Pink had so many questions, but she decided on letting the woman explain. 

“Well, not completely, anyway. The Cluster emerged about a year after you fled Homeworld, but it didn’t take its full effect. I guess whatever Steven did all that time ago was still fresh in the minds of those shattered gems.” Connie paused, looking sad, before continuing. 

“Basically, only half the damage was done. Half of the Earth is still alive, the rest is pretty ruined. That bio-poison didn’t help, either.” 

“_Bio-poison_?” How did this manage to keep getting more complicated? 

“Yeah. Some gem originally from your court had an injector and she used it to try and speed up Earth’s destruction, but I think the Cluster sort of cancelled it out somehow. It might’ve been absorbed.” 

Pink was still trying to catch up. A gem from her court? Oh, no...

“Connie, why was one of _my_ gems doing that?” 

But Connie just shrugged, as if it were no large concern of hers. “White Diamond demanded your capture and return, but apparently a gem took credit for stopping your escape to Earth. That’s why White called off the search. She must’ve changed her mind.” 

Pink found herself suppressing a cry of despair. If White had called off the search, that meant that... _Spinel_... had to have been the gem who claimed to have stopped Pink’s escape to Earth. 

She must’ve also been the one with the injector— those devices weren’t so hard to get ahold of on Homeworld, especially if a gem was in favor with White Diamond. 

Which Spinel _must_ have been. 

And that must have been why White had ended the search: she’d known that Pink had been left in her own garden. That would explain the drones arriving to further hinder her leaving, White hadn’t needed to bring her back to be a prisoner in her own her room if she was already a prisoner elsewhere. 

“Uh, is it Pink Diamond? Or, uh, Rose? What should I call you...?” 

“Pink is fine.” She looked out at the ship’s front window. “Where are we going?” 

“Earth.” 

As it turned out, Connie had been right: when their ship finally reached Earth’s solar system, the damage to the planet was not subtle.

Pink Diamond frowned at the sight of it: an ugly grey scar covered nearly half of the once-green globe, even the seawater gone from the dead half. It was depressing; the Earth had always been Pink’s favorite place because it was so unlike the coldness of Homeworld, but now it almost resembled it. 

The ship orbited around, passing the dead part and coming to the still-living side of Earth. 

Connie pulled a lever and the ship began to draw nearer. “Lucky for us, the Cluster left Beach City virtually untouched, but there’s still a small deadzone around the lighthouse from when the injector was there.” She turned her chair to face Pink, who was looking anxiously out the front window. 

“I know you’re worried about Greg— and I want to help him too, but I have to find my parents first, okay?” 

Pink nodded, holding her tongue. It wouldn’t do well to argue right before they got there, no matter how anxious she was to see him. 

The pair waited in relative silence as they dropped beneath the cloud cover, which was dark with the promise of rain. It was a soft landing onto the beach, the sand yielding a bit before the ship’s legs stopped sinking in it. 

Connie immediately shut off the lights and got to her feet. “We’ve gotta be careful here. This is a pretty high-security area. Can you be less... uh, you-looking?” 

“I can try.” Pink tried to match Connie’s overall human look: many layers of clothing, a strong, slightly stockier build, tamer hair that draped around her shoulders— though it was still a bright pink. 

She left her gem exposed due to necessity, since she might have had to reform if it was deprived of enough light, but made sure to allow her “clothes” to keep it mostly hidden from plain view. 

Connie snorted. “Well, that’s about as human as you’re gonna get— next to your Rose look. C’mon.” She pressed the door button and the pair hopped out onto the sand. 

The sand underfoot wasn’t unpleasant, but made getting to the boardwalk a lengthy endeavor. Pink followed Connie as they ran, half-hunched over as they kept low, towards the nearby town of Beach City. Pink wished with all of her being that she could just go back to her Temple and everything would be as she’d left it. 

Connie signaled for Pink to follow her as she slipped into the shadows behind a building with a large “O” on top. It looked long-abandoned. 

Pink Diamond tapped Connie’s shoulder as soon as they’d gotten out of plain sight. “Wait. How did you escape from Homeworld?” 

“It wasn’t hard. They didn’t realize that I can’t be destabilized, so I just jumped through the ‘electric’ field after the guards left. It’s not like Earth’s electricity. After that, it was easy to keep a low profile— Homeworld is hard for even gems to navigate.”

“What then? Your ship?” 

“I managed to find some off-colors, they helped me find one. By then I was almost starved, so I headed right to Earth. It was lucky for me I landed by the barn and picked up some supplies. Lapis and— er, my two friends used to live there.” 

Pink was about to ask what Connie was planning to do now and where they were heading, exactly, when a loud crash made them both jump. It had come from about a building-length away. 

“Stay here”, Connie hissed, pulling a notched dagger from one of her pockets and dropping into a crouch, moving towards the source of the sound until she disappeared around the corner of the nearest shadowy building. 

Pink waited tensely— she had a much better chance of fighting something off than Connie did, to be honest, but she stayed put. No use drawing attention to herself unless necessary. She was a wanted gem. It could worsen things...

But then there was another noise, a cry— of fear? Pain? Pink immediately shed her disguise and summoned her shield, running headfirst into the shadows that Connie had gone into. 

...Only to be stopped mid-stride by Connie herself. 

Pink nearly doubled over at the sudden halt. “What’s going on?” 

Connie was shaking her head. Two figures were approaching, huddled close together and about Connie’s height, if not shorter, but as they came into the light, Pink noticed their striking resemblance to Connie. These must be her parents. 

“Oh.” 

Pink’s shield dissipated in her hand as she forced a small smile to the newcomers, but not before Connie had seen it. “New shield, too?” 

She shrugged. “Just wanted to change things up.” 

Pink recalled an Earth custom and stuck out her hand to the older human woman in greeting. “I am Pink Diamond. It’s good to meet you.” 

The woman shook it firmly. “Dr. Priyanka Maheswaran. And this is my husband, Doug.” The man next to her smiled tiredly in greeting as his wife continued, turning to their daughter. 

“Oh, Connie, I can scarcely believe it’s you. We were afraid something horrible had happened.” 

Connie scoffed. “Horrible, like half of a planet dying? I’m fine... I came here to rescue you guys.” 

“Rescue?”, her mother echoed. “But where will we go?” 

“Away from here. Pink says there’s other habitable planets out there as long as we look, and she knows the galaxy better than I do. But I want to find Mr. Universe, too... any chance you guys know where he is?” 

Mrs. Maheswaran nodded, sharing a look with her husband. 

“Yes. Just after the... gems... started landing here, Beach City was evacuated. Everything was happening so fast— but some of us stayed. Greg is staying at the lighthouse.” 

Pink made a face at that. Wouldn’t it be under surveillance?

The older woman saw her and laughed, making a dismissive gesture. “Don’t worry. Those gems didn’t bother going up there, not that I know of. Greg still texts us from time to time with updates. We all try to stay in touch.” 

Connie and Pink told them where the ship was and led the other two to it, glad for the cover of darkness. No gem stopped them on the way. 

Once Connie’s parents were safely on board, Connie took it into the air, heading for a nearby forest. She’d already mentioned that the cloaking technology was taxing, and the ship was starting to get a bit warm in the main room, as if the strain of staying hidden was causing it to overexert itself. 

Connie brought it down in a clearing surrounded by tall trees, letting the cloaking slip away. Her parents bid her goodnight and retired early to the spare bedchamber. 

Pink hadn’t stopped thinking about Greg, all alone in that lighthouse, about how much she’d missed him. She was itching to go out and make sure he was okay. When Connie had finally stepped away from the dashboard, Pink hurried over to her. 

“Aren’t we going to get Greg?” 

The worry must have been apparent in her voice, because Connie’s stern face softened a bit. “Of course. I just need to eat something and then I’ll be ready. We’re gonna have a long way to walk.” 

“I can float”, offered Pink, but Connie shook her head. “Too obvious. We don’t wanna get noticed mid-air, trust me. We’ll have plenty of time before sunrise to find Greg.” 

About ten minutes later, Connie was ready, and they departed the ship, stepping out into cold, wet grass and leaves. 

The uphill trek wasn’t difficult for Pink Diamond, understandably, but Connie was a little out of breath as they reached the treeline bordering the expanse of grass before the cliff, the twin silhouettes of the lighthouse and the used injector almost invisible against the dark sky, the only differing detail the lack of stars where the two objects stood.

They didn’t leave the cover of the trees immediately, however. Running out blindly could be dangerous. Besides, Connie clearly needed a breather, even if she didn’t say so, and Pink didn’t mind letting her catch her breath so much as she minded not seeing Greg, but she said nothing. 

After a minute or so, they’d determined that the coast was clear. Connie agreed that floating over there now wouldn’t be too risky, so Pink formed a bubble around them both and rose into the sky, over the open grass field, and just past the injector, landing with a small bounce just outside the lighthouse. 

“It’s probably locked, if he really is living here”, whispered Connie, but when Pink turned the knob, to their surprise, it opened. 

Shrugging, Connie stepped inside, Pink ducking to follow her. 

The lighthouse was dark, cold, and smelled like seawater. Every board creaked loudly under their weight. 

“Mr. Universe?”, called Connie. “It’s me, Connie Maheswaran! Are you in here?” 

“Don’t move!”, came a voice all-too-familiar to Pink. 

They blinked in confusion as a light flicked on, revealing a figure swathed in a woolen blanket, including most of their face. They were holding a strange metal bar, hooked at one end, but not exactly resembling a weapon. 

“Connie? Is that you? And who’s...” , the figure trailed off. 

The blanket dropped to reveal none other than Greg Universe, sporting a goatee like he’d had in his band days, his ridiculously long hair now streaked with gray. His eyes were the same— dark brown, kind, and understanding, though now they betrayed something almost like panic. 

“Sorry, do I... know you?”, he asked, lowering the metal bar and turning to Pink. 

Pink nodded, took a deep breath, and changed again, feeling her gem turn in her form as she lifted off from and then landed back on the floor, hair falling into the familiar pink ringlets around her shoulders and down her back. 

Greg had known of her true identity a little before Steven had been born. Pink had been unable to keep a secret from him forever, so she’d resolved to tell him at the latest possible moment, because it had been the easiest decision. She really wasn’t _proud_ of it, but how could she reveal that part of her history, when she’d kept it from all but her Pearl until then? 

Greg hadn’t reacted negatively when she’d revealed her original form to him. He’d _smiled_, said that it didn’t change things as long as she was happy now. That was one of Pink’s happiest memories with him.

It had hurt that he didn’t initially recognize her at all, but she didn’t blame him. She had changed, after all. 

Her Quartz form, in contrast, was unmistakable to him. 

“Rose”, Greg whispered, stumbling back and catching himself on the nearby wall. “It’s you.” 

“It is”, she agreed, noting how even Connie looked surprised to see Pink’s alternate form. 

But she didn’t care about any of that now. It had been so long since she’d seen her Greg, it was all she could think of. “Greg, I’ve missed you so very much...” 

“Where... where’s Steven?” 

Pink froze. He was staring at her gem. 

Steven? 

Oh. Right. 

She knew, of course. 

But she couldn’t quite _say_ it, as it turned out, because when she tried to open her mouth, no sound came out, and the expression that came over Greg’s face only made it twice as unbearable. The small flicker of light in his eyes had died out in seconds. Her silence was answer enough. 

Pink— Rose Quartz— sank down in a heap, unable to meet his eyes for the first time that she could remember after having met him. 

No one spoke for a moment. This Quartz form felt wrong somehow— Pink allowed herself to fall back into her other form, armor making a soft sound as it fell into place back on her body, protecting her from nothing at all in that moment. 

She didn’t know if it was possible for gems to get sick, but she certainly felt like it. 

_Steven..._

When neither Greg nor Pink Diamond could say a word, Connie spoke up. 

“He’s... he’s gone now, Mr. Universe”, she murmured, and though she looked expressionless, her voice still held a broken tone. “It was years ago.” 

Greg gave a slight nod, unmoving for several beats before suddenly snapping his head to Pink. “What _happened_, Rose?” 

Pink hardly heard him. The feeling of sickness was getting worse and worse. 

“White Diamond... took out his gem”, Connie replied, speaking up for her again, but Greg didn’t turn to look at her. He was still staring at Pink as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. 

Both humans jumped slightly at the sound of thunder, a booming crack across the sky. It seemed that the rain was finally coming. 

Greg stepped forward wordlessly towards Pink, holding out his arms in the offer of an embrace, but when she didn’t lean forward to reciprocate, he dropped them. 

“I missed you too, Rose.” He sounded hoarse. Tired. Pink wondered if he meant it.

Connie cleared her throat when the Diamond didn’t answer. “We came here to rescue you, Mr. Universe. Because of the injector, and the Cluster, and—“

“No.” 

Pink finally looked up. “What?” 

“I said no. Thank you, but... I can’t. My place is here, on Earth.” When neither Pink nor Connie responded, Greg sighed and went on. “Where I was last with Steven. All his favorite places are here.” 

He looked wearier than ever. “I can’t leave the last place he was happy in.” 

Connie nodded in sympathy, but Pink was trying not to listen, the sound of her son’s name like a violent blow to her each time she heard it. 

She barely heard it when Greg said goodbye to her, mumbling something numbly in response and following Connie out the front door and into the pouring rain. 

The downpour shocked Pink more than it did Connie. She actually _yelped_— there was a spiked bubble around her and her companion before she’d given it any thought. 

“Pink!”, Connie cried. “What was that for?” 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” 

But when the bubble _didn’t_ go away immediately, Pink began walking forward, feigning causality as if she’d intended this to happen, trying to ignore Connie’s stare from her side as they headed back down the slope, and eventually among trees. 

By that time, her panic had died down, and the bubble popped abruptly. 

“You didn’t mean for that to happen”, Connie said plainly. It wasn’t a question. 

“I didn’t expect the raindrops, that was all.” 

“But you didn’t make it go away.” 

Pink looked away, waving a hand defensively. “You would’ve gotten soaked. I was keeping you dry.” 

Connie could sense the lie, but chose not to push it. There just wasn’t a point. 

The trip back would have been easier if they hadn’t been in the midst of a storm, water and debris flying around and making it harder to see two feet in front of them. 

Eventually, they made it back to the ship in one piece, although Connie was shaking like a leaf from the cold. 

Immediately after the door opened, Pink sensed that something was wrong. It was hard to see anything amiss in the darkness they’d left it in, but the ship’s engine had gone quiet. Was that _normal?_

Before she could voice anything, several broad-shouldered figures stepped into view, one of them pushing two smaller ones— Connie’s parents— in front of them. 

“Pink Diamond, as a wanted gem, you are under arrest by the order of White Diamond.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive the slight hiatus there. I’m not going to leave this unfinished, but I’ve got a lot going on IRL at the moment, so stay tuned!


	5. Menagerie of Misfortunes

“Hey, 3YG! Check this out!” 

The taffy-pink gem winced at the other Quartz’ loudness: pardoned or not, she was still terrified of angering their higher-ups, especially only a few hours after being unbubbled. 

If one of them stepped out of line, it could mean the end for them all, especially since all of Homeworld was bound to remain suspicious of them for awhile. 

3YG made her way over to where the other, shorter Rose Quartz soldier was, the smaller gem gesturing excitedly to something in the sky. 

“Look! We’re going to Earth soon, isn’t it great? I’m so excited!” , chattered the other— 3PF, technically, but most of the others just called her Thorn. (Apparently, the Earth flower of the same name possessed some famously prickly adornments.) 

Thorn was mostly ‘perfect’, just as strong and fast as the other Rose Quartz gems, except that she was just the _slightest_ bit “over-cooked”. She fell just short of the expectation for height, with legs just a tad too stubby, but the difference had been so small that she had never been demoted or reassigned for it. 

3YG was glad for that— Quartzes weren’t allowed to have friends, but she secretly favored Thorn over most of the others. She had this enthusiasm that 3YG almost envied, but was also uplifting to be around. High spirits were in short supply on Homeworld— 3YG took what she could get, even if she couldn’t really show her appreciation. 

Today, however, Thorn was being annoying. They’d _already been briefed_ over the plans for Earth after one of White Diamond’s gems had briskly explained what had happened with Pink Diamond. 

Thorn was getting excited over every ship that took off for Earth, wanting to be next, but 3YG knew their time would come eventually. Why couldn’t the other Quartz be a little more patient? Besides, they were supposed to be guarding this warp pad...

“Thorn, I already told you we’ll be leaving soon. Can’t you keep it together for a few more hours?!” , 3YG muttered, glancing around anxiously as if the Morganite assigned to their group would suddenly materialize behind them, screaming her head off. 

The shorter gem snorted, scratching at her forearm just above the gem on her wrist. “Ah, don’t crack yourself— what’s the harm in being excited about it?” Despite her words, she trudged back over to her station near the warp, nearly causing 3YG to trip, spinning around as Thorn passed.

The day-cycle _was_ coming to a close— they should be called to go any minute now, shouldn’t they? 3YG ignored Thorn’s fingers tapping impatiently on her spear as they both waited. Surely they wouldn’t be left behind? 

Just as 3YG was about to agree about what was taking so long, another Rose Quartz, accompanied by a Carnelian, warped in right beside them. 

“3PF! 3YG! You’ve been summoned for a ship heading to Earth!”, gasped the Carnelian, clearly exhausted from something. Things must have been running late. 

The two Rose Quartzes stepped onto the pad and vanished in a flash of blue light. 

Thorn was unable to contain her curiosity, and turned to the Carnelian who had summoned them. “Do y’know what we’re doing on Earth?” 

The Carnelian’s lip curled as if in distaste, not answering; 3YG resisted the urge to slap her hand to her own forehead and risk cracking the gem there. Couldn’t Thorn see that Rose Quartzes weren’t trusted yet? 

Glancing at the other Quartz who had been with the Carnelian, her suspicions were confirmed. She looked uncomfortable, self-conscious— and the cherry-hued Carnelian next to her had pointedly been avoiding eye contact the entire time. 

3YG wished things were different. Thorn could be naive, yes, but her curiosity was justified. They’d hardly been given time to adjust before being immediately sent out to a foreign planet. 

Every single active Rose Quartz had been bubbled for... _thousands_ of years. That _did_ take a toll on a gem, no matter how ‘dormant’ they had seemed for all that time. 3YG hadn’t felt this confused and disoriented since she’d first emerged. 

They didn’t deserve to be treated like this. Hell, they hadn’t deserved to have been bubbled, even when all of gemkind had believed the story about Pink Diamond’s demise. It wasn’t like they’d all been involved. 

And now, even after the alleged true story had been revealed, Rose Quartzes were almost worse off, even the most rigidly obedient ones. 

3YG wasn’t worried about herself, but as for ones like Thorn... 

She shuddered to think of what trouble her smaller friend might unintentionally cause if she didn’t start thinking things through. 

All four Quartzes grunted almost comically as they landed rather roughly on the Earth warp, a chilly wind blowing around their warm-toned forms. 

_So this is Earth_, thought 3YG. 

Wasn’t it supposed to be... greener? This didn’t look at all like the descriptions other gems had been talking of: green, vibrant, full of strange, organic lifeforms of all shapes and sizes. She’d actually been hoping to see some of that. 

Next to her, Thorn’s pale eyes were huge, taking in every detail as if she were afraid she might forget them if she looked away. 

The Carnelian, with an expression of clear disdain, gave Thorn a rough shove, sending her stumbling off of the warp pad. 3YG could only clench her fists in silence and pretend she didn’t care. Thorn would be fine. 

“Come on”, droned the Carnelian, “We’ve got to get to the Earth base. Follow me.” 

It wasn’t a long way to the Earth base, but with each new area they passed, 3YG began to get the feeling that something here wasn’t right. 

All of these buildings were here, odd-looking, sure, but clearly meant to be inhabited, just like the gem structures on Homeworld. 

Where were all the _humans_? 

The Carnelian led them through city after city. They crossed bridges littered with shiny, colorful machines, and passed large, wide walkways covered in scraps and organic waste. Even the water looked dull as it ran alongside them in gutters and pooled into slimy puddles. 

As they finally came upon their destination, past a grove of dead trees, both Thorn and 3YG gasped. 

The place was alive still, somehow, the area overgrown with plants bearing fruits and flowers— such dainty pink flowers. Some of them blew in the breeze, floating around their heads, and 3YG found herself reaching out to catch one...

“Snap out of it. We didn’t come here to sightsee”, growled the Carnelian, and although 3YG complied, she made a face as soon as the red gem had turned her back and continued walking. She was a Quartz, just like them— it wasn’t fair that she was acting like she was so much better. 

Past the next grove of trees, the clearing continued on— but what lay to one side was the most eye-catching of all. 

It was a palanquin, pale pink, unmistakably Pink Diamond’s. This was where all of Homeworld had thought she had been shattered. Even knowing the truth, 3YG shivered. It felt haunted here, somehow. 

Carnelian stopped right in front of the giant structure, pressing a button that had risen out of the soil in front of it. 

The palanquin, still half-buried in the overgrowth, began to come out of the ground, held up by a large platform underneath that revealed a dark passage within. Carnelian stepped in, followed immediately by her Rose Quartz companion, but 3YG and Thorn hesitated briefly. The sense of wrongness was twice as strong here. 

Carnelian sighed, producing a destabilizer from her gem. “Either you’re coming, or you’re getting poofed.” 

Both Quartzes obviously preferred the first option. 

As they descended into darkness, 3YG felt a smaller hand find its way into hers, interlocking their fingers— in spite of the risk, she let it happen, hoping the lack of light would hide the forbidden gesture. 

It wouldn’t do any harm to comfort her friend now, especially when the alternative might be Thorn having a panicked outburst. 

_I’ve got you_, 3YG willed to her friend, hoping against all logic that the Quartz might somehow understand her thoughts. _You’re fine. Keep it together_. 

_Whatever we’re here for, whatever happens, it’ll be okay._

•••

The ship that was towing Connie’s stolen one was about five times its size, so it had a much wider view of the ground below. 

Not that it mattered. The Quartzes and Nephrite piloting it weren’t about to let their charges have a better look. 

Pink Diamond was, embarrassingly, under strict watch. She was the literal highest ranking type of gem that there was... surely these soldiers could show a little more regard for that? 

But no. She, Connie, and Connie’s parents were all in the same place— and being treated like criminals. 

Which they technically were, yes, but Pink felt ashamed; shouldn’t she, of all gems, at least be given some explanation? A call from White Diamond, perhaps? If she was being taken back to Homeworld, then what were they going to do with Connie— and her mother and father? 

Pink felt terribly for them most of all. They were just innocent human beings, caught in the crossfire of Homeworld’s sinister plans, beings who had survived on a dying planet and who had hoped for a better chance elsewhere. 

But now, they were being carted off to wherever Pink was going? Homeworld had never cared about organics in the past. Why should they take interest now? 

Being so high above the cloud cover, Pink couldn’t tell where they were going, but their trajectory soon became even. They weren’t going to leave Earth, not yet, at least, so where on it were they heading? 

From her place at the back of the room, Pink leaned forward as to be heard, pulling slightly on the chain that had been fastened around one ankle. “Could one of you just explain where—“ 

“Pink Diamond”, interrupted one of the Quartzes, an Amethyst, “It would be wise not to cause trouble now.” 

“But—“ 

“It’s for your own good.” She let out a breath, and then glanced at her companions. “I’ll tell you where we’re going, though: you’re being taken to the Earth base, to the current overseer of this planet. She’ll have jurisdiction over what happens next.” 

When Pink stared back, still not fully understanding, the Amethyst shrugged, throwing up her hands as if to shed blame in an unexpected display of guilt. “We’re just doing what we’re told, My— _Pink_ Diamond.” 

Hurt sliced through Pink again at the Quartz’ last sentence. Had White somehow... _demoted_ her as a Diamond, on top of everything else? 

Could she not have at least left Pink some of her dignity, if not her own son and the fate she’d chosen for herself? 

It was bad enough, thought Pink, as the ship started to descend through the clouds, that she had lost everything she’d cared about in some way or the other. Steven was gone. Greg didn’t want to come with her. The Earth, her colony, her home, was on the verge of destruction. 

And now she wasn’t even a Diamond anymore? How much more humiliation could she endure before she fell to pieces under the pressure? 

How did everything manage to somehow keep getting _worse_? 

Pink was snapped to attention as Connie lightly shook her by the arm, pointing forward at the front window. The Nephrite at the front was landing the ship. 

“I know this place”, whispered Pink to Connie, who gave her a quizzical look. 

“This is where I staged my death.” 

“Oh.” 

They were jolted as the ship made contact with the ground, the humming of the engine dying down to a gentler purr, quiet enough to hear their own captured ship make a rougher landing behind them, clanking to a halt in the grass. 

Only the Nephrite stayed where she was as Pink Diamond and the humans were unhooked from the back wall and ushered onto a circular mark on the floor, which quickly formed into a large, metallic bubble around them as it transported them outside the ship’s walls and deposited them onto the lush ground below. 

“Guess the Cluster didn’t reach here yet”, Connie murmured to her parents out of earshot of their captors. 

Pink agreed, and was glad that this small area had been spared— humans called it _Korea_, and she had always loved this section of the planet, though she imagined that most of the country wasn’t still this... alive. What a coincidence that such a memorable place had been spared as of yet. 

It nearly took Pink Diamond’s (vestigial) breath away to see her old palanquin, lying just as she’d left it all those countless centuries ago. 

Well... almost as she’d left it. 

As the group came closer, Pink noticed right away that there was fresh, dark soil in a sort of ring around the structure, as if something had moved near or around it not too long ago. 

Her musings were cut short as she was separated from Connie’s family, two Quartzes urging her towards the palanquin alone; she realized that they weren’t going to stay together. 

“Wait! Where are you taking them?” 

The Amethyst that had spoken before said nothing, only continuing to push her along with a grim expression.

Pink dug her heels into the ground. “Speak to me, won’t you? I deserve at least _that_—“, she cried, shoving the Quartz’ hands off of her. 

The Quartzes stepped back, summoning their gem weapons— both axes, and fanned out behind her. “Don’t make us fight you”, one warned. 

But Pink was far beyond pacifism. In the old days of the Crystal Gems, she might have just tried to run off, but where would she go now? There was nowhere here for her anymore. 

“Stop this, and I won’t!”, Pink replied, summoning her shield. 

There was a gasp from Connie a few meters away: Pink glanced down and saw that her shield had changed again. It rested on her forearm now, but it wasn’t round anymore. 

Now, it was more like a blade— still a solid, defensive plate, but the edges were sharp and ended in a point near her hand, the muted rose-and-thorn symbol from before now completely gray. 

She hardly had time to jump back as one of the Quartzes made a slash for her, her heavy axe carving a depression into the ground where it landed in her absence. The other one ran forward with a yell of determination, swinging her own axe in a sideways motion, which Pink blocked with her newly formed shield, the shock of the hit still sending her backwards. 

Both Quartzes rushed her in unison, but Pink leapt above them, floating, and willed her shield-blade to grow, waiting for them to jump up after her before bringing her own weapon slashing down at them before they could even touch her. 

One of them gasped in surprise and poofed immediately, having been cut through the midsection, but the other managed to escape the attack and swing her axe yet again. 

Pink formed a bubble in the nick of time. The axe bounced uselessly off it it, and the Quartz below realized too late the danger of her proximity: Pink let out a vicious screech as she willed the bubble to explode into its deadly shards, poofing the second Quartz. 

Watching the gems fall to the ground as she descended, Pink heard a noise from just behind her in the air, but before she could drop down to the ground, a third Quartz, from where she had been ushering Connie’s family, had shot upwards and driven her fist, encased in a glove of solid metal, into Pink’s abdomen. 

The crunch was audible even to where Connie was standing. 

Pink dropped from the air like a shot pigeon and landed squarely on her back, eyes wide as she clutched her gem. 

_Cracked again_, she thought miserably, staring furiously at the Quartz soldier as she landed next to her, allowing her weapon to dissipate. __

_ __ _

Panic seized her as she waited for her healing tears to come: nothing was happening. 

_ __ _

No— this couldn’t be! Why _now_, of all times? 

_ __ _

The third Quartz, brushing herself off, picked up the two gems of her comrades. Frowning, she waved over at the ship. Within seconds the Nephrite pilot hopped out, dashing over to take the gemstones from the Quartz’s grasp and hurrying back into her ship as Pink could only watch from the ground. 

_ __ _

Making eye contact with Connie, Pink’s very soul cried out in shame: she’d let these humans down, these humans that had stood by her even when Greg Universe didn’t. 

_ __ _

She hadn’t been strong enough, not with all of her armor, not with her supposed Diamond strength, to free herself and her human companions. 

_ __ _

Her human _friends_. 

_ __ _

“I can do this forever”, growled the Quartz. “I don’t know why you aren’t healing yourself, but if you do, I’ll do that again. You may be a Diamond, Pink, but I’m no novice. I’ll take you down again.” 

_ __ _

Still eyeing the Diamond warily, she stalked over to a pedestal in the ground near the palanquin. “Now, are you going to comply, or must I drag you?” 

_ _As an afterthought, she muttered, “...Please, don’t make me drag you.”_ _

_ __ _

Pink got to her feet, head spinning, and gave one last look to Connie, trying to express how sorry she was in one glance, before turning to face the Quartz soldier. 

_ __ _

“I’m coming.” 

_ __ _

After she’d gotten in with the Quartz, said gem had pulled a destabilizer from her gemstone, its foreboding glow the only source of light in the pitch-black passage. Pink guessed that the gem wasn’t too keen on a rematch, despite having cracked Pink— and she couldn’t blame her. 

_ __ _

Because, really, she shouldn’t have won that fight. Not by a long shot. Even a Diamond as small as Pink was naturally stronger than the average gem, though not trained as extensively for battle. 

_ __ _

And then there were her healing abilities, well-known by now. 

_ __ _

She should have been able to summon the tears she’d needed to fix herself, but of course, _that_ wasn’t working normally either. 

_ __ _

Pink wondered bleakly if she was just not cut out to go on existing. Maybe giving up her physical form to have Steven had weakened her, somehow, changed her in a way that gems didn’t normally experience. 

_ __ _

Maybe she’d doomed herself in that sense, although she honestly hadn’t ever intended to come back at all. 

_ __ _

Could that be what was wrong with her? 

_ __ _

The platform came to a halt as light streamed over the two: they had arrived at the mouth of a long underground tunnel. 

_ __ _

“Come on”, murmured the Quartz, setting off an once, and Pink could do nothing but follow, her damaged gem sending dull waves of pain and discomfort through her as she walked. 

_ __ _

The tunnel seemed to extend into infinity, but Pink’s captor clearly knew her way around: every turn in a new direction was deliberate, and soon Pink had lost all sense of where she was in the dim maze. 

_ __ _

At last, they came upon a set of doors, vast and tinged fuchsia, though Pink Diamond had never seen an insignia quite like this one before. 

_ __ _

It resembled her own color, and it would have made more sense here if Pink had never faked her own death and rebelled against Homeworld in the first place— but this was... new. 

_ __ _

It hadn’t been here when Pink had first arrived, and it certainly hadn’t been something she’d asked to be built. What was it doing here? 

_ __ _

The Quartz pressed her hand to a square to the side of the doors and entered a code, stepping back as the doors glowed around the edges before a cold hiss escaped them and they came open. She looked at Pink. 

_ __ _

“This is where I leave you. I... I greatly regret having to use force to get you here... _My Diamond_”, said the Quartz, her voice falling into a whisper at the last two words. 

_ __ _

She gave Pink an awkward nod and turned on her heel, marching back the way they’d come, and Pink couldn’t help but feel just a bit better at the gem’s words. 

_ __ _

At least _someone_ still valued her. 

_ __ _

The room in front of her, as she turned back to step through the doors and further into it, was taller than the tunnels had been, with columns on either side, striped with pink and red like giant candy-canes. 

_ __ _

It was long, too, she could make out a raised platform at the opposite end as she approached it cautiously, hand still over her cracked gem as she took in her surroundings. 

_ __ _

This place was clearly run by a high-class gem, if it was this imposing. The signs were everywhere: intricate patterns, grandiose architecture, repeated shapes and colors. 

_ __ _

It was typical of White Diamond to show favor on the crueler gems, Pink thought with disdain. She wondered if it was a Morganite. Maybe it was the same Morganite that she’d suspected to have sent those little red drones to her garden to trap her there? 

_ __ _

As Pink reached the raised platform, she climbed onto it with some difficulty; she had to half-hop forward, resulting in an awkward crawl over the edge until she dragged herself back up and looked around. 

_ __ _

In the center of the platform was a chair, accompanied by several inactive pink screens, definitely where the head gem would be most times. 

_ __ _

Behind it were more columns around the perimeter of the ‘stage’, a vast screen between each one, with multitudes of buttons below them. It looked like important equipment, but why was it all unmanned? 

_ __ _

The sound of someone clearing their throat made Pink squeak and whirl around. 

_ __ _

It was a Pearl. 

_ __ _

As most Pearls were, she was small, fragile-looking, and her face was grave, downcast, as if these traits had extended to her mood as well. 

_ __ _

She was timid as she cleared her throat again. “Pink Diamond, I am to escort you to the head gem of the Earth operation. Please follow me.” 

_ __ _

Pearl had stated that last sentence more softly, as if she were begging instead of asking, but she met Pink’s gaze as if to assert her seriousness. 

_ __ _

Pink Diamond nodded, coming over to the doorway the Pearl had entered from. 

_ __ _

Pearl visibly relaxed. “Right this way, if you please, and watch your head.” 

_ __ _

Pink had to walk somewhat uncomfortably as she followed the wiry gem: the hallways were definitely not meant for someone her height. This Morganite had to be _short_... 

_ __ _

But as she rounded a few bends and let the Pearl lead her into another room, one much darker and filled with active screens, Pink knew that it couldn’t be a Morganite. 

_ __ _

As the door closed discreetly behind them, Pink’s vision focused in the low lighting until a new, awfully familiar silhouette became clearer. 

_ __ _

Pink felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. There was no possible way... 

_ __ _

“Long time no see, old pal”, came the voice of Spinel.

_ __ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let you all know, I’ve strayed a considerable distance away from my original outline 
> 
> But: trust me. I think this is going to go in a better direction. Let me know your thoughts down below, and stay tuned for more updates!


	6. Secret Team: Homeworld Edition

Pink Diamond was at a complete loss for words. 

All this running around and hiding, all this waiting, all of this fighting, all of this defeat. She’d survived it all, only to have gone in a circle?

Only to have ended up exactly where she _didn’t_ want to be? 

Even her prison sentence on Homeworld would have been better than this. 

Pink could only stare at the gem in front of her, knowing there was nowhere left to run. She was badly cracked, again, and it seemed as if she had no say in anything anymore. 

Not like she ever did have much of a say. 

“I’ll be honest”, Spinel continued, swiveling her chair to face Pink, “I didn’t expect to see you so soon. It’s great timing!” 

Pink shifted uncomfortably. Somehow, she had the feeling she wouldn’t agree with whatever the reason for that was. 

Spinel had an expectant look, but shrugged when the Diamond didn’t respond, chuckling. 

“You’re just in time to witness Earth’s demise, of course!” 

It wasn’t like Pink hadn’t known— but hearing it out loud made it far worse. 

A churning feeling began in her gut as she looked past Spinel at the screens behind her. They displayed various views of Earth, but what scared her the most was what was on the middle screen: half of the planet was greyed-out, presumably representing the decayed half. 

It was edged by bright pink. _Bio-poison. _

There really wasn’t hope for her colony, was there? Even if she managed to heal herself and overpower Spinel, the damage had already clearly been done. It simply wasn’t reversible. 

Oh, stars. What would that mean... for Greg? 

He’d refused to leave Earth with Pink Diamond and Connie, and as conflicted as Pink felt about that, she couldn’t bear the thought of him perishing along with the rest of his kind on a doomed planet as she watched helplessly from the shadows of this base. 

She had to find a way to help him— even if the Earth itself was destined for destruction. 

A knock at another door, one at the other side of the room, made all three gems turn at the sound. 

Spinel sighed. “Open it, Pearl.” 

The Pearl broke her mechanic stillness, approaching it and unlocking it with a code at its side. 

The door opened to reveal a Quartz... but something about her was not right. Pink squinted to try and see past the Pearl. 

The soldier stood at attention, except her arms weren’t at her sides, or holding a screen with information. Rather, she stood in an uncomfortable pose, arms bent and palms facing up, her expression a blank, emotionless smile. There was no color in her form whatsoever. 

_White_, Pink recognized. Whoever this gem had been, she was White’s now. 

...Technically, she was White. 

“This is a reminder for the head gem at this location. Since this operation will inevitably succeed, your presence is no longer required in this base. Please proceed to the surface, where you will be taken to your next assignment.” 

When she had finished speaking, the Quartz didn’t walk away, but rather hovered, unnatural and motionless, until she was out of sight. 

The Pearl nodded, perhaps to herself, and closed the door, looking back to Spinel. “Shall I recount her information?” 

“No need— let’s get going”, replied Spinel, pressing a button on the screens and letting them click off. “As for our guest, you’re coming with us”, she added to Pink. 

“Where are you taking me from there?”, Pink finally spoke up, a flutter of nervousness making her hesitate where she stood. If she was headed for more misery and powerlessness, then she at least deserved to know what was going on. 

Spinel stopped in the doorway, her expression one of displeasure. “Didn’t ya hear? We’re going _up_. Get a move on.” 

The walk through the corridors wasn’t as unpleasant as Pink had feared, namely because of the Pearl’s presence, which she found oddly comforting. 

...Well, she supposed, it was likely because _any_ presence other than Spinel’s was comforting. It felt just a tad less like she was in danger. 

Pink Diamond recognized the long hallway when they approached— it was the very same that she and the Quartz soldier from before had come in through. At the end was the hovering platform that traveled vertically, and where she would see the surface again shortly. 

Pink tried to stay in her own corner as all three gems stepped onto the platform, the Pearl typing something into the screen adjacent to it, but there wasn’t much room, so she was stuck with being hunched in one corner only a few feet from the others as the doors closed. 

The platform hummed to life then, the walls around them seeming to fall constantly as it ascended. The only light was from the glowing, yellow edges of the surface they stood on, but Spinel’s Pearl had activated her own gem’s light source, illuminating most of the platform with the smooth stone on her forearm. 

Pink jumped slightly at a hand on her shoulder. She turned. 

Unsurprisingly, it was Spinel, looking at her with a perfectly innocent expression. 

“Aren’tcha glad to be heading back to the surface? I thought you _loved_ the Earth.” There was a venom behind the casual question, but Pink knew better than to react explosively. 

Not as if she had the strength, anyway. She simply gritted her teeth and nodded, aware of the Pearl observing them with soft, round eyes from where she stood. Pink wondered if Spinel treated her well. 

At last, the ceiling opened above them and the light of Earth’s star was shining warmly upon them. Spinel stepped out from under where the palanquin had lifted, followed by her Pearl, and lastly Pink Diamond. 

In the clearing before them stood White’s Quartz and two others— both pink-colored. 

Rose Quartzes. 

Pink was surprised to see them, she hadn’t been around an actual Rose for thousands of years. They’d all gone missing around the start of the rebellion, long before the Gem War. 

Had they all been suddenly... found? 

While White Diamond’s Quartz remained devoid of emotion, Pink noticed the other two’s growing looks of confusion as they came nearer. Had they not expected to see Pink here? Had they known she was still alive? 

No, wait, of course they had to— so why did they look so lost? 

“Er, greetings”, stuttered one of the Roses, eyeing Pink Diamond as they stopped in front of the Quartzes. “We were told we’d be escorting you to Homeworld.” 

Spinel, tapping a foot impatiently, appearing annoyed that they hadn’t addressed her first. “Well, yeah. When can I expect to hear from White Diamond?” 

Both Rose Quartzes exchanged a glance. 

“_Hello?_” , Spinel cried. “Did you hear me or _not?_” 

The other Rose Quartz, slightly shorter than her companion, stepped forward.” You’re... you’re coming with us to Homeworld. We suggest none of you make this difficult.” 

“...Please”, she added. 

For the first time in what felt like eons, Pink Diamond resisted the urge to smile. This entire situation had not only been a bitter loss for Pink, but a misleading defeat for Spinel. 

Of _course_ White Diamond wouldn’t have actually given such an important role to such a low ranking gem past this one sole operation. Down underground, in that dark, quiet Homeworld base, no gem on Earth would have known that the one they were receiving orders from didn’t even come close to outranking them. 

And now that the operation was over in Homeworld’s eyes, so was this short-lived privilege for Spinel, whether she had assisted in stopping Pink Diamond’s escape or not. 

White had used Spinel, and now she was done with her. It was almost laughable. 

Pink didn’t say a word as she watched a range of emotions cross the disgruntled gem’s face: disbelief, panic, confusion, anger. 

Then, Spinel looked past her Pearl (was she even really hers anymore, though?) and right at Pink, who couldn’t help a victorious smirk. 

If they’d been alone, Pink knew, she would’ve regretted that, but Spinel could do nothing but clench her jaw and turn her back, following the Quartzes over to a smallish ship partially obscured by greenery just past the hill they were on. 

While they were filing into it, the shorter Rose Quartz stopped Pink. 

“Wait. Your gem’s cracked. Let’s get you to the robonoids on board.” 

Pink nodded, almost not believing her luck. It was certainly a welcome change to have someone care about her well-being for once. 

The door closed behind them and Pink followed the Quartz, watching as Spinel and the Pearl were ushered into a closed-off area like common prisoners, the suppressed rage on Spinel’s face lifting her spirits considerably. 

“Okay”, said the Rose as soon as they’d entered a different room, “Stay right there. I’ll go fire one up and we can get that fixed.” 

From Pink’s perspective, she could still see most of the central room from the doorway, where White’s Quartz had taken up a place at the front to pilot the ship. Just past her was the taller Rose Quartz soldier, and past her were Pearl and Spinel. 

Pink snorted as she watched the Pearl take a seat on a surface slightly away from Spinel, as if to say she had nothing to do with the other. Things had certainly changed quickly. 

“I’m back!”, announced the Rose Quartz as she returned, holding a bright yellow robonoid in her arms. 

The soldier held it up to face Pink and coughed. “Uh, you’re gonna have to move your hand away.” 

“Right— sorry.” 

The tiny machine didn’t waste time in firing a strange substance at Pink’s gem. It was cold, and had a slightly unpleasant texture, but brought her almost instant relief: the gemstone began to fuse back together into one solid, gleaming shape, and Pink felt the energy flood back into her limbs and body. 

The Quartz looked suddenly very anxious, as if she hadn’t thought to put Pink into a cell before healing her, but the Diamond put up a hand. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to make trouble for you.” 

“Ah. Well. Good...” 

“And thank you, by the way”, Pink smiled. “I’m glad to be whole again.” 

••• 

There was light. Everything was light. 

White light, mostly, but the edges of Yellow Diamond’s vision were tinged with blue, too. 

Was she _shattered?_ Was this what it felt like? This feeling was unfamiliar— although not quite unpleasant. 

Gradually, Yellow became aware of more than the light: her surroundings were devoid of color for the most part, but she could make out the edges of a spacious room and the shadows of its corners as she felt her legs straighten out, feet now planted on the ground. 

She blinked, trying to right herself, where was she? What was going on? 

As she was still adjusting to being awake, a hand grabbed her own. Yellow turned. 

For the briefest of instances, she didn’t recognize the regal blue gem next to her, only marveling at the way the other seemed to radiate calm. 

“Blue”, Yellow murmured, shaking her head to clear it. 

Blue Diamond nodded sleepily. “We’re back.” 

“From where? I don’t remember how we—“ 

“Oh, Yellow, Blue!”, interrupted another voice from behind them. 

Both reformed Diamonds froze momentarily before turning around. 

It was White Diamond— _of course_, thought Yellow, furrowing her brow. If their forms had somehow been compromised, White would surely have an explanation for them. Nothing escaped her notice. 

But White only smiled evenly. “Welcome back. There’s much work to be done. Pink Diamond has returned and fled in your absence.” 

Yellow let go of Blue’s hand in shock. Returned? But Pink was gone— shattered by a traitorous Rose Quartz from Earth... 

_No_, Yellow recalled, she _wasn’t_. 

Memories seeped back into her mind, the more recent revelations of how Pink had given up her physical form to bear a half-human child and their plea to change White’s mind on things finally giving Yellow the context she’d been missing. 

Blue Diamond, in contrast, didn’t appear to be remembering any of this, her face neutral as White began telling them what had happened as they were reforming. 

Yellow was careful not to react as she saw Blue nodding along to White’s story, which Yellow had been tuning out this entire time. It was a lie. 

White had fabricated a falsehood for them; she was talking of Pink being alive, but not revealing the full story that Yellow knew to be true. 

It was typical of White Diamond to manipulate their beliefs, and therefore their actions. She was powerful— and she intended to keep things that way. Any challenge to Homeworld’s order could mean chaos among their courts, so it made perfect sense that White would want Blue and Yellow to believe a simpler truth, one that didn’t involve them trying to change how she ran things. 

Yellow Diamond thanked the stars that whatever White had done to them hadn’t worked on her, but as she nodded along with Blue, she couldn’t help the twinge of fear that jolted through her at the prospect of trying to convince Blue of what was going on. 

Despite this new obstacle, Yellow still intended to help Earth and the Crystal Gems. Her and Blue’s honest plea to White before they’d been poofed had exposed their vulnerabilities, but it had also exposed White’s impossibly high standards. Yellow wanted to change that— she was still holding on to hope that she might get through to White, but first she would have to jog Blue’s memory somehow. 

When White had finished catching them up, she dismissed them. Yellow followed Blue Diamond out of the head-ship, waiting until the opening had closed again between them and White before putting a cautious hand on Blue’s shoulder. 

Blue looked surprised. “What is it?” 

Yellow hesitated; how would she even begin to explain this? How would Blue take it? Would she tell White, and get Yellow in trouble, or— 

“Yellow?” Blue Diamond had stopped walking, one eyebrow raised. “Is something wrong?” 

“No. It’s— White. She’s lied to you, Blue.” 

“_Lied?_ How so?”, Blue asked. “Are you... feeling alright?” 

Yellow sighed. “I’m fine. Can we discuss this in private?” 

Blue obliged her, miraculously. Yellow led them into her bubble room, fidgeting uncharacteristically with her hands, to her fellow Diamond’s amusement. 

As soon as the door closed, Yellow Diamond faced Blue. 

“White’s taken your recent memories.” 

“_What?!_” 

“It’s true, I swear it!” 

Blue held a hand to her head. “I don’t think you’re lying, but why would she _do_ such a thing? Why only me?” 

“She clearly meant it for both of us, Blue... but there isn’t time for us to try and jog them.” Yellow frowned, wishing they had more time. 

“I’ll have to fill you in.” 

For a few seconds, Blue Diamond looked pensive, as if she were contemplating telling White, and Yellow stiffened. That couldn’t happen, it would certainly mean having her own memories wiped for certain this time. 

How was she meant to help Earth— and Homeworld— on her own? They’d both been out at least a decade, after all. Damage control might be in order. Who knows what White could have done in that time? 

Thankfully, Blue looked up, a peaceful curiosity in her eyes. 

“Alright, Yellow. I’m listening.” 

••• 

By the time the Quartz’s ship had entered Homeworld’s atmosphere, Pink Diamond had learned two things. 

One: The Quartz she’d been chatting with called herself Thorn, which Pink found adorable. It suited her, too— the spunky soldier had a sharp sense of sarcasm, but was just as sweet as the Earth flower which gave her her Quartz name. 

Two: Apparently, according to Thorn, Pink’s own human zoo was still fully functional, though this information did little to ease her growing sense of dread about Earth’s slow death— not to mention the knowledge that Greg was still on it, and who even knew where Connie and her relatives were at this point? 

“C’mon, let’s get out there and ready to land. I’ll be with you as far as the Diamond palace.” 

That was a relief. Pink could care less about Spinel’s fate, as long as she didn’t have to talk to her anymore. It would be a welcome break to be back in her own room, if only for a short while. She still hoped to escape at some point in time to rescue her favorite humans. 

Their landing was a bit rough, as the ship itself looked to be old, even for gem tech. Thorn and the other Quartz accompanied the three passengers as they were led out and into the bright, blank light of their home planet. 

Pink was instantly put at ease when she and Thorn split off from the others with nothing but a glance of understanding between the Quartzes. The palace was already in sight, casting a gargantuan shadow over the two gems as they made their way through the various paths and tunnels of one of Homeworld’s many layers. 

After some time walking, Thorn stopped just outside of a door, which was tall enough for White Diamond herself to walk through it if she so desired, reaching far above Pink’s height and covered in intricate, geometrical designs. 

“Well, this is where I stop at. I hope we meet again!”, said Thorn, practically bouncing in place. 

Pink Diamond smiled back, appreciating the Quartz’s friendly demeanor. “As do I.” 

Just then, the massive doors flew open without warning. 

Standing in the doorway was Blue Diamond, who looked troubled. 

“Pink”, she whispered, voice heavy with emotion, but there was clearly another matter on her mind, even at a time like this. 

“I’ve missed you so much— stars, you look so different— oh, but you must come with me, not to your room. We’ve got to hurry.” 

“Why? What’s happening?”, Pink replied, waving a hasty good-bye to Thorn as she stepped inside and let the door slide shut in her wake. 

She hadn’t seen Blue Diamond in thousands of years, and as complicated as her feelings about her and the other Diamonds were, Pink was aching to embrace her. What could be so pressing that it was disrupting their reunion? 

“White doesn’t know”, said Blue, “But Yellow and I are going to help you. We’re going to help Earth.” 

Pink Diamond couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Blue and Yellow Diamond— willing to see her side of things, for once? Willing to go behind White’s back? 

“That’s wonderful, Blue, and I’m happy to hear it— but you do both know what happened while you were in your gems, don’t you?” 

Blue Diamond shook her head, eyes wide. “I suppose we hadn’t thought of that. White told us... a story, but Yellow said it wasn’t true. She’s had to fill me in; White wiped my memories.” 

Oh dear. If White Diamond had really gone that far, then she was trying to cover something up, and she likely wouldn’t take kindly to her fellow Diamonds trying to piece together the truth without her knowledge. 

On the bright side, Pink reasoned, Yellow and Blue were finally on the same page as she was, somehow. 

Whatever had happened before Pink had been brought back, it had given them new perspectives. Something had made them see sense. 

If only it were so easy with White. 

This was going to be... interesting.


	7. Goodbye, Mr. Universe

“You’re telling us that Steven is _dead_?” 

Pink Diamond ignored the wave of nausea that threatened to overtake her at Yellow Diamond’s shocked question. 

She’d had to recount what she knew of Earth’s status and everything that had happened right after she’d been brought back. Of course, Yellow was the one that had somehow retained her memories, but both she and Blue hadn’t known anything past making a plea to White. 

Pink had a hunch that she’d mentally overpowered them, as she sometimes did whenever she deemed a gem out of her control, but she couldn’t know for sure until she found Connie again. 

“Yellow, be sensitive”, Blue Diamond murmured. “He was precious to her, like how she is to us.” 

Yellow looked guilty for a moment, and then sighed, getting up from the chair in the center of her bubble room. “Well, if what you’ve been telling us about Earth is true, then there isn’t much time. If you know where your Greg Universe is, now is the time to retrieve him.” 

“Wait”, said Pink. “I don’t just want to rescue him, I want to rescue them all!” 

Even Blue raised a brow at that. 

Yellow scoffed. “There isn’t time! We can try and pick up as many humans as we can, starting with yours, but it’s simply not possible to save their entire _race!_ Besides, how would we fit them in our ships?” She paused, noting Pink’s dejected expression, and let out another long breath. “Both of our ships combined are large, but not nearly enough to hold seven billion of them. I’m sorry, Pink.” 

As horrible as the thought of letting billions of humans die was, Pink Diamond knew Yellow was right. Even with all _three_ of their ships, it would take countless trips and much more time than they had to safely get humans and the other various flora and fauna they lived with off-planet. Plus, they hadn’t yet found a habitable zone that was close enough to use for such a purpose. 

Furthermore, White Diamond would be furious if she found out. She’d probably destroy the whole operation and bubble her fellow Diamonds for another decade or so. 

_Not_ ideal. 

Blue Diamond put a hand on Yellow’s shoulder. “You’re right, Yellow. We know you’re right. But if we’re going to save any Earthlings at all, we’ve got to make haste and do it now.” 

Yellow nodded. “Pink, go with Blue in her ship. I’ll follow you both to Earth. From there, you can retrieve your ship and we can begin.” 

It was surprisingly easy to board their respective ships unnoticed. They seemed to be in mint condition, despite Yellow recalling them being heavily damaged prior to being poofed. 

Both had been parked in a sector far enough away from White’s that they could take off with little risk of being noticed, especially with today’s slight cloudiness; some of the dust from Homeworld’s broken rings had blown in particularly close to the planet’s surface. 

Pink looked back as Homeworld grew smaller and smaller, eventually becoming a small white dot in the distance as Blue’s ship rocketed through space, Yellow’s in close pursuit. 

She thought glumly of Greg, praying he would accept their help and flee Earth, but it had been so long since she’d seen him that she felt as if she barely knew him anymore. Pink wasn’t sure what to expect. 

And what of Connie? Neither Blue or Yellow seemed to have knowledge of a human being taken into custody on Homeworld, but where else could she be? 

Surely she wouldn’t have been imprisoned... or worse? 

Homeworld didn’t usually meddle with organics, but if one had information... no. 

They would just have to try and find her on Earth. 

Which, as the ships finally arrived, seemed to be in a much worse state than Pink Diamond had left it in. 

She’d guided Blue to Beach City... or what remained of it, at least. 

It was more than discouraging to see the once lively town completely dull and devoid of life. The green hills had become brownish, detached and dry grass blowing every which way and making the air foggy with debris, visible from the sky. 

Pink found some relief in seeing the Temple intact, though the water lapping at the beach itself looked an off shade of greyish-purple. 

Blue landed her ship over the water, waiting for Yellow to follow suit before summoning an exit pod. 

It was nearly enough to make Pink cry— _really_ cry— at the feeling of sand underfoot, the unique, grainy-soft texture discernible even through her shoes. 

Yellow Diamond came to stand with the other two after a moment, hands on her hips. She took a long look at the house and Temple before turning to Pink. 

“I’ll admit, it’s unsettling being here now. It’s far too quiet. Before, it was... _busier_.” She pursed her lips, giving a helpless look to Blue. 

“I know. I used to love it here”, Pink agreed. “But we can’t waste time. Greg was in that lighthouse—“, she pointed at a nearby hill, “—the last time I was here.” 

“Then why did we land over here?”, Blue asked. 

As she spoke, a loud, guttural noise boomed from somewhere near the Temple, echoing mightily. Yellow and Blue tensed, but Pink Diamond began walking forward. 

“For him.” 

From underneath the porch of the house, a shape became clear— it was an animal, large and fluffy and pink. 

“Is it _yours_?”, exclaimed Yellow, the sparks in her fingers dying down as she made the connection. 

Pink nodded as the lion bounded over, halting just a foot away from her. His round eyes were wide with surprise and curiosity. 

“Hey, you”, Pink murmured affectionately, “It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Let’s get you out of here.” 

Reaching forward with a hand, she touched the lion’s soft forehead, and at his gentle blink, formed a bubble around him. She smiled sadly at her old friend before tapping the top, willing it to go to Blue’s ship instead of popping back anywhere on Earth. 

Blue Diamond looked tired as Pink came back to them. “Let’s go, shall we?” 

At the other hill, the very top was still untouched by decay, though individual blades of grass were constantly fading and dying as Pink walked over them up the slope to the lighthouse. She had asked Yellow and Blue to stay behind unless she gave a signal— she didn’t want to scare Greg, or seem too intimidating. She needed to get him out of here. 

Just as before, Pink Diamond found the door unlocked, but had the good sense to announce herself by calling for Greg as she stepped inside. 

A brief silence was followed by many hasty footsteps from above, the stairs of the old building creaking and croaking. 

“Rose?”, Greg panted as he reached the bottom, catching himself on the railing for support. “What are you doing back? Is everything okay?” 

“I—I’m sorry, but... it’s not. The Earth is dying, Greg, and Homeworld wants to—“ 

“Rose, I know. I’ve been watching people leave and plants die for weeks. It’s kinda depressing, but what’s a guy to do?”

“I came to get you away from here, Greg!”, Pink snapped. “Don’t you get that you’ll die too? The atmosphere will soon be too toxic for you to breathe!” 

Greg was quiet briefly before shaking his head. “As far as I’m concerned, Steven is still here, on this planet. I’m gonna stay. I have to, or I’ll never forgive myself.” 

“But— you’ll die...” 

“You’ve just gotta let me go.” 

Pink Diamond surprised even herself when she sent her fist into the nearest wall, crunching through the ancient wood in one hit. 

Immediately, she withdrew it, staring at her hand in shock. “Greg, I’m so sorry, I—“

“I think it’s best you get going.” 

Greg was shivering in his shawl, and Pink hoped that it was just from the draft. He didn’t look angry, but the pain in his gaze made her feel like the worst scum of the galaxy. 

She hadn’t wanted to upset him... She’d only wanted to help him. 

And now she’d blown it. 

Without another word, Pink Diamond nodded, backing to the door and pushing it open. She didn’t once look away from the man she had used to know, wishing with all of her being that things could’ve been different. 

“Bye, Rose”, said Greg, and she closed the door. 

“Goodbye, Mr. Universe.” 

•••

The process of combing Beach City for stragglers was brief and disappointing: not a soul other than Greg was left, apart from the occasional Homeworld gem, but with Yellow and Blue with her, Pink didn’t have any trouble pressing onwards without being stopped. 

They’d asked about him— Greg— she’d ignored them. (Funny... It had always been the other way around, hadn’t it?) There wasn’t time to dwell on it anyhow. 

Earthquakes had begun as the three Diamonds scanned the surrounding cities and (literally) picked up whatever humans they could find. Most went along eagerly, having no other choice and fearing that the end of their world was nigh, despite the fact that the gems rescuing them were also the ones who’d caused this in some way. 

Pink managed to find some former Beach City residents in a neighboring town, all fraught with worry about the Universes, all wary of the Diamonds, with their better knowledge of gemkind. Luckily, no one outright refused to be saved. 

Yellow and Blue’s ships were floating in the sky, following above them while they walked as the sun began to set. The tremors had become so intense that even the two larger Diamonds often had difficulty standing through some of them. 

Night fell. Pink Diamond had successfully cleared out multiple cities, fauna included, although some of the smaller, masked furry creatures weren’t getting along very well with the other animals. 

Blue Diamond was placing the last group of humans from a city onto a pod and into her ship when a massive tremor began, so violent that she nearly dropped them trying to keep balance. 

Yellow shot out a firm hand to catch her, and glanced down at Pink. 

“This is nearly out of control. We’ve got to get to your ship and move onto somewhere away from here.” 

Just as she finished speaking, the rumbling grew louder, but this noise was new. 

And from above. 

All three Diamonds stared in horror as a gigantic shape became visible in the sky, descending rapidly: White Diamond’s head ship. 

...Joined with Pink’s legs ship. 

Blue secured the pod of humans and both she and Yellow drew their ships behind them in the air. Pink leapt into the sky and landed on Blue’s shoulder, watching White’s ship use hers to land some distance in front of them. 

Pink Diamond felt herself tense. This couldn’t happen now, not when they’d already collected so many humans and other creatures, not when they were so close to doing the one good thing they could. 

“Blue”, she yelled over the din of the ongoing earthquake. “We’ve got to leave, now!” 

Blue nodded. “Let’s go, Yellow!” 

They brought their ships down, aware of White Diamond’s approaching with heavy steps. Yellow managed to board hers quickly, her arm ship raising slightly higher and making a fist, ready to defend if need be, while Pink and Blue boarded the other. 

Inside, it was crowded, but there was just enough room for Blue to sit and pilot, Pink squeezing past a few humans to climb onto her crossed legs, gazing up at the screen to the outside. 

Just as Blue reached forward, connecting her hand and forearm with her ship’s controls, there was a blast of light— White’s ship had fired a beam of light right between Yellow and Blue’s ships, nearly grazing them both. 

The close proximity made both giant objects shake briefly before Yellow took off into the sky, Blue following closely behind and away from further damage. 

As they shot away, oddly enough, White’s ship didn’t follow. 

Pink Diamond tugged at Blue’s dress. “Keep going, but please, turn around. I don’t know what she’s doing down there...” 

Blue didn’t hesitate to oblige her. The entire spacecraft clicked and shifted as it turned, still following Yellow Diamond, until Earth’s surface was once again in view as they fled. 

It was a good thing, Pink thought, that they had turned. Because White wasn’t alone down there anymore. 

Several huge shapes surged past the Diamonds’ ships on their way into Earth’s atmosphere, tall, many-legged things... 

_Injectors_? 

There was a loud noise and another flash of light as they flew past the clouds. Pink felt herself shudder at the ear splitting groan: the sound of so much weight collapsing and falling and crumbling and— 

Exploding. 

As soon as the ships left the atmosphere, the blast was visible. 

Where the vibrant green-blue sphere had once spun passively through space, there was merely a gray, hollow shell. Chunks of the planet, thousands of miles wide, were shooting out in all directions, breaking up the swirls of white clouds and creating clouds of debris larger than the planet itself. 

The room had gone dead silent. 

Planet Earth was no more. 

Pink Diamond had never before felt so organically sick. She nearly fell off of Blue’s shoulder as she stumbled, unable to tear her gaze away from the ruins of her only colony. 

And then the ship turned, Blue’s arm moving in a somber arc to face away from the scene, and Pink gasped, snapping back awake. 

It was gone. 

Greg... was gone. 

Oh, stars. He was _dead_. 

And what of Connie? Her family? What of the other billions they hadn’t had the time to save? 

Logically, Pink knew that she couldn’t realistically have saved them all. They didn’t even have a planet secured to relocate them yet. And— and White had found them out. 

...Wait. 

Where _was_ White? __

_ __ _

“Where’s White?”, Pink choked out, the terror of being caught yet another reason to worry. 

_ __ _

“I don’t know”, answered Blue, sounding as if she too had just realized that the two other ships were nowhere to be seen. 

_ __ _

A screen popped up in front of them, making a few humans yelp in surprise. It was Yellow. 

_ __ _

“Are you two alright? I can’t see White anywhere. Neither ship is showing up on my radar!” 

_ __ _

“It’s the same for us, but we’re fine”, Blue said, giving an anxious look to Pink. “But where are we even going, Yellow? What now?” 

_ __ _

For a moment, Yellow looked just as scared as Pink felt. Pink couldn’t imagine that even the formidable Yellow Diamond had any idea of how to both handle White’s fury and the idea of relocating an entire species— or whatever was left of it, anyway. 

_ __ _

“We— we’ll head to one of my bases. I know one on a planet with an atmosphere. Just follow me.” 

_ __ _

Blue nodded, but as Yellow went into hyperspeed, something slammed into the side of Blue’s ship, throwing it off-balance just as their own hyperspeed went into action. 

_ __ _

“No!”, screeched Blue, but she was powerless to stop what had already started. The humans had begun panicking now, yelling and wailing and moving about as if they’d all been cracked at once. 

_ __ _

The ship flew roughly as it traveled. Something was wrong with the distribution of weight. Had something been damaged? 

_ __ _

“Pink, check the control room. I don’t know what’s wrong with it!” , cried Blue. 

_ __ _

The smaller Diamond leapt off, and was about to do so when the ship’s weight shifted again, causing its passengers to sway to one side as it leaned dangerously, still traveling faster than light itself. 

_ __ _

Pink Diamond froze as a dark shape crawled to the front of the ship, blocking the viewing window. 

_ __ _

They hadn’t been hit by any Earth debris. This was another injector. 

_ __ _

Screams rang out as the machine began hitting the window, hacking away with its metal legs and forming cracks in the glass like material. 

_ __ _

If it succeeded, it would let in the vacuum of space and kill every organic being in this room. Their ship’s rescue would have been for nothing. 

_ __ _

Pink jumped up, right at the ceiling, and willed Blue’s ship to form a transport pod around her. 

_ __ _

“What are you doing! _NO!_”, came Blue’s voice, but Pink had already phased through the walls of the spacecraft and onto the outside of it. 

_ __ _

The attacks from the injector stopped at once as Pink jumped out and sank her shield-blades into the ship to stay in place, fighting the intense force threatening to throw her out into space behind them. 

_ __ _

She crawled forwards, stabbing her weapons into the hard material with such difficulty that she nearly missed a few times and lost balance. 

_ __ _

The injector, to Pink’s relief, came away from the window, the looming thing meeting her where she approached it. 

_ __ _

Before either opponent could make a move, however, there was a jolt as Blue Diamond deactivated the hyperspeed from inside— just in time to rush into the atmosphere of an unknown planet. 

_ __ _

Pink Diamond screamed as the change in velocity dislodged her from the ship, sending her careening separately as she fell from the unfamiliar skies along with both machines. 

_ __ _

She managed to form a bubble around herself as she fell, trying her hardest to conjure a happy thought to slow her descent— but her panic was too great, and she felt the planet’s surface crash into her forcefield, all senses going black.

_ __ _


	8. Undeserved Mercy

At first, Pink Diamond was absolutely certain that she was looking at Earth’s full moon. 

She was shrouded in total darkness, with the one exception of a circle of light above her. 

But no, she knew, Earth was gone. 

Squinting, Pink realized what she was really seeing: The light at the end of her self-carved tunnel into the ground of this planet. 

Pink definitely didn’t remember the bubble popping, but she could assume that she’d crashed violently enough to have created such a deep crater. Just her luck...

As she peered around, Pink observed that she hadn’t simply awoken in a crater; there were other paths here. 

Pale stone, rough and riddled with holes, made up the cavern she was in, with alternate tunnels stretching in all different directions around her. 

The smell of salt hit her and Pink Diamond sighed at the almost familiar feeling of sea breeze ruffling her hair. This planet appeared to have an ocean of some sort.

But what planet _was_ it? 

She hadn’t recognized anything when she was falling— but then again, she hadn’t exactly been taking in the planet’s beauty when she was plummeting from the sky. Maybe they’d gotten lucky and landed on Yellow’s destination. 

That was the hope, at least. 

Every footstep echoed as Pink traversed the planet’s sea caves, her gem glowing slightly to illuminate the path ahead. All was quiet, save for the gentle, distant rush of water from a direction she couldn’t quite pinpoint. 

After about half an hour, she was starting to think she’d gone in a circle somehow when the cave around her opened— into a larger chamber, riddled with holes. 

They appeared to be tidepools, harboring a wispy black algae-like organism and the occasional fishy creature flitting about in the water. Pink found herself slightly comforted— it was almost like Earth. 

And then she jumped at a dreadful sound from somewhere nearby: a whiny, high-pitched hissing noise. 

“Hello?”, Pink called, ready to summon her weapons. “Who’s there?” 

For a moment, it was silent, and even the tiny creatures splashing around her seemed to pause in their movements in anticipation of a response. Pink wondered if one of the humans they’d rescued had gotten lost down here like she had. Perhaps they could work together—

A terrible screech told her that this was no human. 

Whatever this was, it wasn’t listening to her— she gritted her teeth in frustration. She didn’t know what she was up against here! This was a foreign planet— even to her! 

With a rebellious cry, Pink rounded the nearest corner, blades drawn, towards where the sound seemed to originate from. 

It was darker here, and the sound of water lapping at rock told her that she must be close to the end of the caves, but she couldn’t just walk out. Or float— the ceilings were too low. She would just have to face whatever silly native organism she was about to encounter. 

“Oh, stars”, Pink whispered, because as a shape materialized from the shadows, vast and dark and wet with saltwater, she realized that this was no organic being. 

As clear as day, a teardrop-shaped, gleaming blue gemstone sparkled from the shoulder of the creature. This was a gem. 

A Lapis Lazuli, by the looks of it, but Pink Diamond didn’t understand why she looked like _that_. Why shapeshift into such a horrid beast when Lazulis have flight capabilities? Surely this form was unnecessary. 

But something about the blank look of feral aggression in the gem-creature’s eyes indicated that the gem had been damaged somehow, even if Pink wasn’t sure exactly what had done it or why. 

This Lapis was not herself, and therefore dangerous. 

The gem-creature dragged itself towards Pink, then, sliding along the stone floor into the light still radiating from her. 

Its gleaming skin was a deep blue and as smooth as a dolphin’s, with two flipper-like limbs studded with claws. Its face was slender and tapered almost to a point, but the thin line of its mouth went much further into its neck like that of a snake. The body of the creature was so long that she couldn’t quite see the tail end. 

The Lazuli’s eyes were glassy, like mirrors, and Pink Diamond saw herself reflected clearly in them as it jumped for her, missing as she dodged sideways to avoid the crushing claws. 

A quick slice of Pink’s blades to the flank of the creature, and the wayward gem shrieked terribly before dissipating her form in a blueish cloud. 

Pink caught the gemstone gently in one hand and bubbled it, unsure of what to do. 

Where _was_ home now? She couldn’t be sure if Blue Diamond’s ship was intact enough to store another bubble— or anyone at all. 

A shudder went through her. She mustn’t think that way. 

She simply had to believe that there was something left to find. 

With a dissatisfied frown, she settled for storing the Lazuli’s bubbled gem in her own gemstone. It would have to do for now. 

Not needing to breathe like organics, Pink Diamond had no trouble diving into the dark water the Lapis-creature had come from, morphing into what she had remembered it looking like so as to move as quickly as possible in the water. 

Eventually, the underwater walls of the sea cave opened into the ocean beyond. Pink rose to the water’s surface. 

Above the line of water, the air was thick with fog, making it nigh-impossible to make out any nearby landmasses, if there even were any.

Pink lashed her broad tail in frustration and dipped back under. Perhaps she could find solid ground easier beneath the oppressive layer of fog. 

As she traveled, Pink was glad that she’d chosen this strange form— the sounds of more of the Lapis-creatures echoed eerily in the dark waters of the ocean, high-pitched shrieks seeming to come from all directions. 

She sincerely hoped that her pale pink color wouldn’t alert any gem-things that she happened to encounter— it was the one thing she couldn’t physically alter. 

The growing panic of being separated from Blue and Yellow was beginning to wear on Pink as she swam, forcing her to dull the light she’d been using to see underneath her as she went. She would simply have to hope that nothing attacked her from below— holding this form and using her gem’s light was starting to drain her energy. 

Her anxiety increased when she realized that if she were to tire and sink, her gem would fall to the ocean floor and receive no light with which to reform should she dissipate. 

_I might have to stay in a bubble_, she thought. 

And then another idea occurred to her, and Pink felt immensely stupid for not having tried it before. 

She glowed briefly as she shifted back into her natural form, and created a bubble around herself. 

Rocking back and forth, Pink let it bounce off the surface of the water like it was made of air— it began to skip along it like a flat stone, rapidly gaining momentum. 

The Diamond sighed and let herself be bounced along for the ride. This was a much faster method of travel, and it had all relied upon this planet’s water having great enough surface tension to hold her bubble. Curious. 

It had hardly been ten minutes before the fog cleared and land became visible. Pink gripped the sides of the careening sphere to steady it, next pushing so that it popped and dropped her right back into the water. 

She took the Lapis-creature’s form again to get her the last half-mile to shore and leapt up onto the beach, which was glittering with black-purple sand in the blueish light of the nearest star. 

Pink was about to morph back into herself, relieved to have gotten herself this far, when she heard a voice not far off. 

She turned her still snake-like head in the voice’s direction: further down the beach were four figures, one smaller than the others. 

_I’ve got to get over there, they might know where Blue is!_

It was an unexpected surprise to feel what seemed like wings made of paper-thin skin unfurl from her forelimbs, extending down her sides, but she used them anyway in the heat of the moment to make a flying leap towards the commotion, body contorting mid-air as she landed amongst the group, still in creature-form. 

And it was a good thing, too, because Pink recognized one of the figures. 

The other three were clearly more of the things she’d fought earlier— blue in color, smooth, built for swimming, slim faces. They’d surrounded the fourth, smaller figure, shrieking and snapping and paying absolutely no mind to Pink Diamond. 

She didn’t know if she even wanted to morph back. She was glad that it was dark enough out to hide her gem’s shape— from her current distance, at least. 

The fourth figure, who looked considerably weakened and disoriented, Pink noted, was none other than Spinel. 

She was worn out, outnumbered, and Pink thought she could make out the tiniest of cracks in the heart-shaped gemstone, but she couldn’t tell. Either way, the bouncy gem wasn’t looking too good. 

“That all you got?”, Spinel wheezed at the Lazulis, fists raised in front of her in an attempt to ward them off. 

The Lapis-creatures clearly sensed her growing weakness, because they continued to shriek and hiss, advancing rather menacingly, and Pink had to wonder if they intended to simply dissipate Spinel... or shatter her. 

She was surprised to realize that she didn’t want the latter. 

Without reverting back to her natural form, Pink Diamond approached the others and concentrated as hard as she could on sending out her aura. As soon as the waves of almost neon-pink light energy took form, washing over the fearsome gems, they stopped their crying at once, looking at one another in confusion. 

Spinel, who was still in a fighting stance, looked just as confused, until her gaze dropped and she laid eyes on the Diamond’s gemstone. 

Spinel looked dumbfounded. “What...”

The creatures, meanwhile, with small, resentful grunts, were slithering off towards the vast ocean, throwing their tapered heads back occasionally to look back at their missed target with glassy white eyes. 

Pink was straining to hold this form now. She didn’t want to change back, though, didn’t want to talk— didn’t want to interact with the gem in front of her at all, if she could help it. 

She wasn’t even sure of what she would say— she had nothing _to_ say. 

So she stopped emitting her power, turned swiftly, and bounded off into the nearby tree line, not stopping long enough to witness Spinel raise a hand as if she’d wanted to say something, and then drop it as Pink left. 

Past the treeline, the woods were pitch-dark, but Pink took comfort in that as she let herself revert back to her natural state at last.

If she hadn’t run into Spinel, she knew, she could likely have held that strange shape for far longer, being a Diamond. Shapeshifting was so natural to her, it was practically second nature. 

It felt like a hit to the gem to realize that she wasn’t as sharp as she’d used to be. She would have to retrain herself. 

She would have to be able to sense danger at the smallest indication of it. 

She couldn’t freeze; her response to conflict would have to be some form of defense. Pacifism no longer felt like an easy option. It felt childish, and she hated feeling childish. 

Always had. 

She’d have to fine tune her senses, not just for battle, exactly, but... well. 

Pink was determined to never let her guard down ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this isn’t much, but I wanted to post to let you know that I haven’t abandoned this story (in a garden for 6,000 years or otherwise)! 
> 
> I should be more active with posting early to mid November, after Halloween and my upcoming surgery. 
> 
> Thanks to all who’re staying tuned, it means a lot! :’)


	9. Monster Buddies

Thorn was on her first official emergency mission and she was absolutely bouncing with excitement. 

Well, not literally. That would be a bit rude, in this situation. 

This was sort of a serious matter, or so she’d been told, especially to the Gen 1 gems also aboard the ship she was on. Gems were under a high level of stress and Homeworld itself was falling apart more by the day. 

And it was because of a very crucial problem: White Diamond was missing. 

Which didn’t exactly worry Thorn as much as she supposed it ought to, with her being less familiar with the brilliant matriarch— but she could gauge how much everyone else seemed to be holding in a full-blown panic. 

The other Rose Quartzes on the ship, she imagined, felt like she did, but here they were anyway, on the front lines with no real idea of what to look for. 

It’s not a sort of question you really ask. You’re just supposed to _know_ what White Diamond looks like if you live on Homeworld. Doesn’t matter if you and your entire cut have been bubbled for thousands of years without ever having seen her. 

You’re just meant to know. 

Thorn’s search team was one of the ships patrolling System 0401— the solar system that had formerly housed Earth and also where White Diamond had last been, according to Thorn’s superiors. Their assignment had been to search Earth’s empty shell for any sign of her and then move on to the surrounding planets to see if the Diamond had taken refuge there after the explosion. 

The explosion, of course, had been an accident. Of course it was eventually going to happen, but something had gone wrong: the Cluster had emerged too early and the Earth had been destroyed with White Diamond still on it— possibly Yellow and Blue as well. 

Thorn shuddered to think what would happen if any— or all— of the Diamonds had been damaged or even shattered. 

Gemkind would surely fall into chaos. 

She shook her head, frowning as she gazed out the ship’s window to see the hollow remains of Earth fast approaching. It wouldn’t do to think like that. 

She would just have to hope for the best. 

•••

The difference between night and day was nearly imperceptible on this strange planet, but Pink thought the blue tones of the nearest star were a calming contrast to the anxieties she was struggling to manage. 

It reminded her of Blue. She sighed as she floated a few feet off of the ground, constantly scanning her foliage-thick surroundings for signs of danger or survivors. It had been nearly six hours since she’d come to and she still hadn’t found a soul besides the Lapis-creatures... and Spinel, though Pink wasn’t sure the wayward entertainer still had one. 

Despite her worries, the environment she was passing through was stunningly beautiful with its twisting cerulean vines and feather-thin grasses that looked softer than anything she’d ever seen or felt. 

The occasional wild creature would dart across her path, chirping or clicking or simply just hopping, disappearing into the brush as Pink wished she could disappear into her gem and sleep for a millennia. Why had her her luck been so utterly terrible lately? 

An odd sound caught her attention as she drifted through the air like a phantom, causing her to stop and turn towards the source. 

A bit below her, in a crevice that contained a bubbling stream, was a huddled shape. 

Pink snapped to attention. Had she finally found a survivor? 

Her hopes were confirmed at last when the figure uncurled from their position, showing a scratched, but definitely human, face. 

She let herself drop into the ditch and crouched down beside them. “Hello, are you hurt?” 

The human swallowed, shaking slightly. Its face was wrinkled with age, dark sunspots peppered across their medium-brown features in a further indication of their time alive. Their hair was short, wispy, and white, covering their head like a blanket of spider’s webs and very nearly obscuring their eyes, which gleamed a soft hazel, though they looked off in the blueish light. They didn’t respond. 

Pink asked the question in a few other human dialects that she remembered vaguely, but as before, the human gave no response, only staring in wonder (and perhaps fear) at her. 

Stars. This was a difficult situation. 

“Alright, you don’t speak, then. May I at least heal you in case you have any injuries?”, she tried, gesturing with her hands in case the human might understand. She really did want to help them. 

The human only blinked at her gestures, eyes following her hands with interest but giving no further indication that they understood. 

Pink took a breath, fighting frustration. She’d just have to make herself cry and hope she didn’t freak out this frail-looking human. Easy. 

Or not. Her eyes felt drier than the desert she’d used to hang out with the lion prides in. 

She didn’t know why this lack of tears even surprised her anymore. 

Thankfully, the scratches seemed to be the only injury the human had sustained. They hadn’t protested when Pink had bubbled the both of them, to Pink’s relief, and so she now travelled via bubble, feeling just a little better at having someone with her who had even less of an idea of what was going on. 

It made her feel respected. 

The jungle ended quite abruptly afterwards, opening up into a flatter area riddled with tall, curving geological structures, and it was then that Pink Diamond got a good view of the surrounding land. 

Distantly, on her right side, she could see the waters of the coastline, the black-purple sand of the beaches a dark line in her vision. In front of the bubble looked something a bit like an Earth mountain, except for the fact that it was larger at the top and smaller at the bottom. 

To her left, below the rocky plateau they were on, was an enormous yellow field, stretching from past the jungle they’d just left to as far as she could see in the other direction. 

...It _almost_ hid the bright metal of Yellow Diamond’s ship, broken in two massive pieces but still recognizable, even at their immense distance. 

For the first time in a long time, Pink felt just a little hopeful. 

This could mean salvation. 

Next to her, Pink’s human companion made a small noise, gaze fixated at the sky, and she followed their line of view. 

Something was flying straight towards the plateau.

Something big. And blue. And shiny. 

And... what was that purplish-pink spot on its back? 

Oh, no. 

Pink muttered several curse words she’d picked up on Earth, face falling as the shapes became clearer. 

Spinel was following her, which was bad enough on its own, but she was doing it via a Lapis Lazuli— and not even a fully conscious one, at that. 

The Diamond scoffed. What else could she expect from a gem with virtually no surviving moral standards? 

Groaning in frustration, she placed her hands on the bubble and willed it forward, floating just off of the ground enough for it to bypass the bumpy terrain underfoot. 

The human next to her, meanwhile, who had been sitting nearly the entire time, stood up, pressing their thin hands to the back of the bubble and watching the pursuing gem and her creature ally. 

Pink resisted the urge to do the same as she went, doing her best to navigate the plateau without crashing into the rocky pillars. She would just have to get down to the valley with the field and hope she’d lose Spinel in the tall grass. 

She would have to. She didn’t know if she could reasonably defend both herself and her fragile human companion against a rogue gem and a physically unstable one, Diamond or no. 

But if it came to it, she would try. 

The day was coming to a close, from what Pink could tell: the blue tones were turning grey, and the mild heat of the star was finally starting to lessen. It had certainly been longer than an Earth day... 

And then, quite suddenly, the sky went dark. Pink gasped and stopped her bubble, afraid she might crash into something, whipping around to look at the sky. 

Oh, she thought, observing the black disk blocking out the planet’s only source of light. A solar eclipse. Lucky her... 

“Ugh,” she muttered, willing her gem to glow and illuminate the terrain below, landing the bubble. 

She hadn’t been worried before about Spinel catching up, but now she couldn’t make a guess as to how much distance was between them with the sky being so dark. She’d just have to try and stay out of sight. 

With a pang, Pink realized that her gem might be giving away her position, so she dimmed it in an instant, morphing back into the creature form she’d taken earlier and waiting for the human to climb onto her back, which they did with surprising ease, clinging on securely like a bat. 

She took a few galloping strides before launching herself forwards and catching a strong updraft, marveling at how such a heavy-looking form could even get itself off the ground at all, let alone glide so well. 

From the air, Pink felt a bit safer, although Spinel was technically closer this way; Yellow’s broken ship was barely visible in the darkness, but still retained the slightest gleam and allowed her to locate it from where she was. 

She turned the serpentine body and dipped into the wind, letting it carry her down towards the field. Perhaps she could skim over the grass and not have to hide herself at all, at this rate. 

Then, there was the faintest screech, and Pink instantly tensed, nearly losing her momentum and sending her and her companion plummeting to the ground. 

If she could hear the thing, that meant Spinel was close. 

Craning her conelike head, wobbling a bit in the air as the effort of it altered her balance, Pink couldn’t make out anything in the pitch blackness behind her. 

_Rats!_

Pushing down panic, Pink turned back and got back on course, the yellow tops of the field’s tall grass almost discernible amongst the pale smear she could make out. 

The air shifted; the eclipse had passed. 

Blue light flooded back into the land, much duller now, of course, but it was just enough to see that they were close to the ground, the grass only meters below them. 

But then, Pink noticed the now-visible shape in the edge of her vision, which was looking rather close— 

She let out a scream as something slammed into her flank, easily her size or larger, somehow failing to knock her human off but sending her face-first into the yellow grass below. 

Pink hit the ground hard, folding her arm-wings in to cover her gem and landing painfully on her shoulder in something like mud. 

By some grace of the universe, the human on her back was still there, making fearful, distressed noises and only just then slipping off and onto the ground beside her. 

Pink felt the impact of their feet through the ground she was pressed into and let herself finally focus on her own damage. 

Her gem didn’t seem to be cracked, but waves of almost unbearable pain began to emit from where she’d landed: her long neck was twisted in an awkward position, having taken the brunt of the fall along with her shoulder and clavicle. 

Tears, glorious, glorious, tears, escaped her too-round eyes, trailing down the slender face and leaving a soothing sensation behind. 

For a moment, Pink Diamond was almost happy. She hadn’t felt her own healing powers so intensely for... for so long, she didn’t even know. 

It was a relief to know she _could_ cry. 

But as she twitched the forelimbs and tail of the form she’d taken experimentally, trying to muster the strength to drag herself up, there was a rush of air behind her and then another heavy impact on the ground in front of her, crushing a few stalks of the grasslike flora she was surrounded by. The human whimpered and staggered behind Pink. 

“I thought that was you”, came a voice from the back of the creature now in front of her, a humanoid shape leaping off from the Lazuli and landing a short distance from where Pink lay contorted. 

Pink raised her head, drawing thin, lizardlike lips back in a grimace at the approaching gem. 

“Got a new look again, huh?”, Spinel jeered, coming to a halt just a few feet from Pink’s snout. 

Pink huffed, trying not to wince as she straightened her neck out with a sickening crunch, rising into a ‘standing’ position to tower over her. She wasn’t having this today. 

Much to Pink’s annoyance, Spinel simply scoffed and stretched her legs so that she was level with the Diamond’s monstrous-looking visage.

“Don’t tell me _you’re_ all screwy, too, like those other creepy things. This one barely listens to me as it is.” 

The Lazuli facing Pink made a low growling noise, as if confirming this, but Pink was turned towards Spinel, snarling. 

How dare she assume she had anything to say that Pink wanted to hear, after what she’d done? 

And on top of it all, she was trying to take the reigns back, as if Pink wasn’t a bloody _Diamond_, after all. As if she had any right trying to tell her what to do. 

Spinel was starting to look simultaneously bothered and worried. 

So she should be, Pink thought venomously. 

Concentrating, Pink sent out her aura again, making the Lapis next to them shudder and screech, backing away into the tall grass. 

Spinel turned, horrified. “_No!_ Hey! Get back here!” 

But as she went back to her normal size and scrambled over to the thing, it shook its head, beating its tail against the ground hard enough to knock Spinel over before leaping into the sky. 

The strain of her aura was beginning to tire her out, so Pink stopped, conserving her energy. She wasn’t about to lose this fight. 

Spinel had already gotten up, pale eyes darting around nervously before locking to Pink’s, hands raised in front of her. 

“Listen. We don’t gotta fight, here, if you’d just—“ 

She was cut short by something small hitting her in the abdomen, landing at her feet. 

Pink turned her head to see that her human companion had tossed a rock at Spinel and was now beaming up at Pink with joy. Pink’s chest rumbled with something like a laugh. 

Guess they weren’t _totally_ defenseless. 

Spinel, clearly, had not found it as amusing, and looked furious. 

Before she could make a move to hurt the human, Pink Diamond shot forwards, spooking the smaller gem, who hadn’t expected it. 

Pink swiped her massive, clawed forelimb, connecting with Spinel’s torso and sending her with a wheeze into the grass so violently that when she landed, Pink could barely hear the impact, she’d sent her so far. 

Well. That hadn’t been so bad. 

It was a relief to finally fall back into her natural, humanoid form, and Pink was relieved to see her human companion unharmed after their fall and encounter as she turned around. 

Night had finally fallen, but Pink could see Yellow Diamond’s ship from where she was as she floated just above the grass. 

She landed and smiled tiredly at the human beside her. This was going to be a long walk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew. It’s been a minute. 
> 
> My surgery went well, and I’m nearly fully recovered, so here’s an update for you. 
> 
> I’m already sad that Halloween is over but at least all the candy’s on discount...


	10. Stardust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been a bit, huh? 
> 
> Sorry for the short chapter! You’d think I’d be pumping them out considering what’s going on in the world right now, but I’ve been pretty busy. 
> 
> It’s a good thing I’ve somewhat defeated my writer’s block for this story, though, in slightly better news. I’ll try to update again soon, hopefully with more content. 
> 
> Thank you for all the support ^_^

In the endless void of space, no one can hear you crying. 

Which White Diamond _certainly_ wasn’t doing, mind you. 

She’d just never felt so close to it before.

She hadn’t been destroyed by the planet’s explosion, to her relief. Not even cracked. 

Unfortunately, she didn’t know where she was at all. The nearest stars were light-years away, and she’d awoken floating alone through the blackness, starry cape covered in space debris and ash. 

Concentrating, White closed her eyes, willing herself to reach herself out, find the nearest planet. 

But there was nothing. 

Silence. 

She couldn’t panic, of course. A Diamond couldn’t panic. 

Least of all her. 

So instead, she focused again, spotting the nearest star and propelling herself towards it with a wave of energy. 

As she reached hyperspeed, she compacted herself into hardly more than an aerodynamic white blur, using all of her remaining strength to hold on her own gem, until she halted right in front of the massive blueish star. 

Its light was a pleasant comfort, radiating pure power, pure energy. 

Her _own_ power. 

Because White Diamond, unlike the rest of gemkind, hadn’t been made by another gem, no. 

She had been the first— the purest, reborn from a dying star. 

It was the reason why she harbored the most power. It was why she knew best for her species. She was imbued with the cosmic wisdom of a galaxy, condensed into a single, perfect gemstone— the singular aftermath of a star’s destruction. 

And it was why she’d come to this still-living one. 

She was close enough to feel its intense heat, but such temperatures were incapable of adversely affecting her, so she stayed, reaching out her hands and letting the radiant light recharge her gem and physical form. 

It was time to go back to Homeworld— time to restore order. 

•••

Pink Diamond didn’t think it was possible for a gem to tire, but she definitely felt like it. 

On an emotional level, at least. 

She’d been wary of getting her hopes up about finding Blue and Yellow, but now she was about to reunite with one of them— so not all hope was lost, after all. 

Of course, she still had to deal with Spinel, her grief over her family and colony, finding Blue Diamond, avoiding White Diamond, and finding a new home for humanity.

Lots to keep track of. 

Pink just hoped that Yellow was alright in there. 

Yellow Diamond’s broken ship had landed in a grass-surrounded clearing, its exposed metal innards littering the ground around it. 

Luckily, the main section didn’t seem to be very damaged at all by the crash, as far as Pink could tell, so she put a hand on her human companions’s shoulder. 

“Stay here, alright? I’ll be back to take you inside.”

The human sat down, seeming to understand, staring curiously up at the massive spaceship as Pink Diamond approached it alone. 

Taking a breath, Pink leapt up onto the highest part, finding the ‘palm’ of the ship’s hand and forming a bubble around herself. 

As she flickered through the wall, she saw hardly a thing at first, it was so dark inside. Clearly, the screens and windows had all been broken and darkened, so Pink willed her gem to glow as she stepped out of her bubble onto the floor. 

There was, thankfully, no blood. No bodies. No giant, broken yellow gem. 

So where was everyone? 

•••

“Maheswaran, eyes up.” 

Connie narrowed her eyes at the human woman in front of her, but eventually complied. 

It wasn’t _her_ fault, anyway. 

Looking past her, Connie watched as a large Quartz barked orders at the other human officers. They looked stoic, but many of them were very obviously afraid. 

It had been utter chaos since she and her family had been taken from Pink Diamond— and from Earth. A force of gems, mostly Quartzes and upper-crust castes, had rounded up pretty much all of humanity, all around the world— before it had exploded, of course. 

Connie had no clue who had ordered it, or what they wanted with a species they essentially deemed useless, but it didn’t matter now, they’d taken them anyway. She didn’t know what they had in store, only that it couldn’t possibly be good. 

But she was determined to get out. 

And she would, by any means necessary. She would. She’d find her parents and she’d get them to safety. Somewhere. Somehow. 

It’s what Steven would have done, after all. 

Connie wished he could be here to talk to, to tell her that everything’s going to be alright. She’d always cherished his patient, understanding nature, and his incredible will to shoulder responsibility, even though she was angry about how much of it he’d had to handle. He should have lived an easier life. 

He had _deserved_ an easier life.

Ugh. She shook her head where she sat, picking at the bland food on her tray. There wasn’t any use in being sad right now. 

Connie had to focus on just how the hell she was going to pull this off.


End file.
